, while nearly 500 children of ISIL-associated parents have been repatriated to Turkey, the Gazete Duvar news website reported on Friday, citing data from the Turkish foreign ministry.){kind=link}
More than 200 Turkish women remain imprisoned in Iraq over links to the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), while nearly 500 children of Turkish ISIL-associated parents have been repatriated to Turkey, the Gazete Duvar news website reported on Friday, citing data from the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
The figures were disclosed during a meeting of parliament in response to a question posed by Ceylan Akça Cupolo, a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), who asked how many Turkish nationals were arrested, convicted and imprisoned in Iraq over links to ISIL and how many of their children had been brought back to Turkey since 2017.
ISIL recruited membership from numerous countries and took over vast swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014. The Iraqi government declared military victory against ISIL in December 2017. Iraq has since unearthed mass graves of people thought to have been killed by ISIL in several areas of the country.
According to the ministry, more than 200 Turkish women are currently incarcerated in Iraq for alleged ISIL membership and close to 500 children with ties to Turkish convicts in Baghdad have been returned to Turkey, where they were handed over to relevant institutions. The ministry provided no details regarding Turkish men convicted on similar charges.
Cupolo said that the situation regarding Turkish citizens in Syria’s Al Hol and Roj camps remains unclear, adding, “The number there could be higher, but I don’t believe the conditions exist to be able to determine it accurately.”
The MP further said that Turks arrested and convicted for links to ISIL should face charges of crimes against humanity, urging Turkey to prosecute its citizens under this framework, as many other countries have done. She criticized Turkey’s inaction, noting that no confirmed ISIL member has been sentenced for crimes against humanity in the country to date.
“Turkey lacks the will to prosecute confirmed ISIL members,” Cupolo argued.
She also mentioned that there is no information on what has been done for the children brought back to Turkey, saying that the Ministry of Family and Social Services should take action on the issue.
“What is Turkey’s experience with deradicalization? What has Turkey done for these children born to ISIL-linked parents and raised in prison? We don’t know,” Cupolo said.
Various bombings and other attacks by ISIL have killed at least 315 people and injured hundreds more in Turkey since the group was declared a terrorist organization in 2013.
The latest ISIL attack, which targeted a Catholic church, the Santa Maria Church, in İstanbul in January resulted in the death of one man and injuries to several others, including the church’s pastor.