Turkey may send IS suspects back even if citizenship revoked
Turkey has warned Britain and other countries that it will send captured Islamic State suspects and their families back home even if their citizenship has been revoked.
Ankara, which has custody of more than 1000 foreign Islamic State militants, wives and their children after seizing parts of northern Syria from Kurdish forces, said it would not hold them forever.
The UK has so far refused to repatriate any of its nationals from Syria, including three orphans whose parents were killed in an airstrike.
‘‘We will send back those in our hands, but the world has come up with a new method now: revoking their citizenships,’’ Soleyman Soylu, the Turkish interior minister, said yesterday.
‘‘They are saying they should be tried where they have been caught. This is a new form of international law, I guess.
‘‘It is not possible to accept this. We will send back Daesh members in our hands to their own countries whether they revoke their citizenships or not,’’ he said, using the derogatory
Arabic acronym for the group.
Soylu warned at the weekend that Turkey would send back IS members captured by Turkey to their home countries and complained of European inaction on the matter.
‘‘They found he said.
‘‘They say, ‘I took his nationality away; it’s your problem now’. an easy solution,’’
That’s unacceptable in our view; that’s totally irresponsible. What do you want me to do with your terrorist?’’
It remains unclear whether Ankara will be able to extradite them in practice, however. Although under the New York Convention of 1961, it is illegal to leave someone stateless, several countries, including the UK and
France, have not ratified it, and recent cases have triggered prolonged legal battles.
The UK is known to have revoked the citizenship of at least 100 individuals for allegedly joining terrorist groups abroad, but the real number is thought to be higher.
They include Shamima Begum, the London schoolgirl, who is now appealing a Home Office decision which left her stateless; Jack Letts, who also holds Canadian citizenship, and British-born Ashraf Islam.
There are believed to be eight British men in Kurdish prisons in north-east Syria, while another 25 women and around 60 children are in Kurdish-run camps. Some may end up in Turkey’s custody as its forces continue to -attack Kurdish targets.
Most are still being held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who have been pleading with coalition members to take their nationals back for more than a year.
Turkey launched an offensive along the Syrian border against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units militia last month after Donald Trump, the US president, withdrew troops from the region.