Turkey Negotiates Repatriation of ISIS Detainees It Once Enabled 

After years of serving as a key transit hub for foreign fighters and an enabler of the Islamic State’s (ISIS’s) campaign to establish a caliphate, Turkey is now in negotiations to repatriate its own nationals who served ISIS and are still detained in Iraq. Ankara has yet to confirm its commitment to prosecuting and jailing its ISIS fighters if they return. 

Turkey’s move follows the U.S.-led transfer operation relocating more than 5,700 adult male ISIS detainees from prisons in northeastern Syria to facilities in Iraq. While the largest group of ISIS detainees consists of Syrians, nationals from other countries, including Europeans and one American, are also among their number. Some will face prosecution in Iraqi courts, while others are expected to be repatriated to their home countries, including Turkey.

The exact number of detainees who will be transferred to Turkey is currently unclear. However, 66 Turkish nationals who had fought for ISIS and were detained by the Kurdish-led, U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria were transferred to the U.S.-led coalition for eventual handover to Iraq. The total number of Turkish citizens who joined ISIS’s ranks is also not known, but Turkish media sources estimate up to 2,000 fighters. Many of them are thought to have been killed by military strikes carried out by U.S.-led coalition forces.

Turkey’s Ties to ISIS

Although Ankara maintains that it is a committed member of the global anti-ISIS coalition, at the height of the Syrian civil war thousands of aspiring ISIS fighters and their families crossed from Turkey into Syria with little interference.

Despite official denials, by mid-2014 Turkey had emerged as a key recruitment hub and transit corridor for ISIS operatives. Estimates in 2014 indicated that between 600 and 1,000 Turkish citizens joined the so-called caliphate. The New York Times reported that ISIS offered Turkish recruits as much as $150 per day, while Newsweek and Hurriyet documented recruitment drives in conservative urban neighborhoods.

In 2013 alone, roughly 30,000 foreign fighters are believed to have entered Syria via Turkey to join ISIS. Brett McGurk, then the U.S. special envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition, even alleged that Turkey had sheltered ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Turkey’s relationship with ISIS also carried economic dimensions. After seizing Syrian oil fields, ISIS reportedly smuggled crude into Turkey, where middlemen facilitated sales to Turkish buyers as authorities looked the other way. Throughout the years, Washington designated a number of Turkey-based entities linked to facilitating ISIS’s financial networks.
 

Additionally, Turkey has a track record of providing sanctuary to terrorist entities. The Turkish government allowed Hamas to establish a base of operations inside Turkey beginning in 2011, and the Muslim Brotherhood, following the deposition of Egyptian leader Mohammad Morsi in 2013.

ISIS Is Resurgent in Syria

There has been a growing ISIS threat in Syria in recent weeks. Since February 21, the group has carried out at least six attacks targeting Syrian government forces in Deir Ezzor and Raqqa provinces. At least eight Syrian security personnel have been killed in these attacks. The uptick follows a statement by the group’s spokesperson, Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari, who announced a “new phase of operations” in Syria.

These attacks come at a time when thousands of ISIS-linked family members have escaped from al-Hol detention camp in Hasakah in the northeast. The camp, controlled by the SDF until the Syrian government’s recent offensive in the area, housed ISIS families and long served as a breeding ground for radicalization.

The U.S. Must Account for the ISIS Threat in Its Withdrawal From Syria

As the United States continues to draw down its presence in Syria, most recently from Qasrak, its largest base in the country, the risk of an ISIS resurgence must factor into any reassessment of America’s future posture. The perception that ISIS no longer poses a meaningful threat could quickly unravel amid the continued division and chaos in Syria. At the same time, Turkey should repatriate all its citizens detained in connection with ISIS and ensure they are prosecuted, lawfully tried, and sentenced appropriately.

 Sinan Ciddi is a senior fellow at FDD. Ahmad Sharawi is as senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he focuses on Middle East affairs, specifically the Levant, Iraq, and Iranian intervention in Arab affairs, as well as U.S. foreign policy toward the region. For more analysis from Sinan, Ahmad, and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Ahmad and Sinan on X @AhmadA_Sharawi and @SinanCiddi. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.