Levent Kenez
Nordic Monitor, Dec. 20, 2022
Turkey’s Defense Ministry on Monday tweeted that border guards in a joint operation with the gendarmerie captured an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) suspect who is wanted on an INTERPOL Red Notice in Hatay province, located on the border with Syria, while the suspect was trying to enter Turkey illegally.
The ministry once again did not share any identification information about the detained suspect despite the fact that the person is included on INTERPOL’s Red Notice list. However, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported that according to the ministry statement the initials of the suspect are M.M. A Nordic Monitor review of the statement confirms that there is no such information in the official announcement from the ministry.
When Turkish authorities capture militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), they reveal their identity and distribute photographs of them taken in front of the Turkish flag.
According to a 2017 presidential decree, Turkish intelligence agency MİT is authorized to expel suspects to another country or swap them for people detained or convicted overseas. The defense ministry may have announced that a person sought by INTERPOL had been apprehended to give the impression that the Turkish military was continuing to fight radical terrorists before any possible military operation in northern Syria. However, Syrian territory bordering Hatay has been under Turkey’s control for a long period of time, and Turkish intelligence has been conducting intensive operations in the area. …source