 militant group whose names are on the list of 377 individuals and organizations whose assets have been frozen by the Turkish government on terror charges, turned out to have been granted Turkish citizenship, the ankaragazetecisi news website reported on Wednesday.){kind=link}
Eight members of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group whose names are on a list of 377 individuals and organizations whose assets have been frozen by the Turkish government on terror charges turn out to have been granted Turkish citizenship, the ankaragazetecisi news website reported on Wednesday.
The decision to freeze assets published in the Official Gazette on Wednesday was made by Treasury and Finance Minister Lütfi Elvan and also signed by Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.
Among the 365 individuals whose assets have been frozen by way of the 12-page decision are 77 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK), nine members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), 86 ISIL members and 205 followers of the faith-based Gülen movement, which is regarded as a terrorist organization by Turkey.
Among the 86 ISIL members on the list, eight of them were foreign nationals who acquired Turkish citizenship: Zıad Alzhourı (codenamed Abu Bahaa), Hasan Krayem, Hasan Maher Abdullah Abdullah, Mohamad Qassem, Fayez Alflıtı (Lebanonese born), Saad Ali Saad Saad, Salim Ahmet Bakr Abboosh and Yusuf al Ali Elhasan (Syrian born).
Turkey’s granting of citizenship to the ISIL members has sparked a debate about the reliability of the country’s security process prior to bestowing citizenship.