Turkey proposes that transitional government take over ISIL camps in Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has said the transitional government in Syria installed after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad should take over the camps and prisons in the country housing suspected members of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and that Turkey is ready to offer support, the Anka news agency reported.

There are two camps in northeastern Syria, al-Hol and Roj, which hold thousands of alleged ISIL fighters and their family members. The camps are run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Fidan’s remarks came during a news conference with his Belgian counterpart, Bernard Quintin, in Ankara on Thursday.

Turkey has been in close contact with the new rulers of Syria, an alliance of rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which ousted Assad on December 8 following an 11-day-rebel offensive.

Fidan said the new government in Syria should take over all the camps in which suspected ISIL militants and their family members are imprisoned and that the government in Ankara could help with this. In addition he said the imprisoned ISIL supporters should be taken back by their home countries.

Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler also said in mid-December that his government had proposed that the United States work jointly with Turkey against ISIL with three commando brigades Turkey would deploy to Syria, firstly to fight ISIL throughout the country and secondly to guard ISIL prison camps in return for the end of the US alliance with Kurdish militant groups in the region. Güler, who as army chief commanded Turkey’s military operations in Syria in 2019 and 2020, said Washington had rejected both offers.

He also accused the US of collaborating with Kurdish militant groups in Syria under the pretext of fighting ISIL.

Ankara views the SDF as linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group designated as a terrorist organization by both Turkey and the US.

The SDF is a key US ally in combating ISIL and is backed by the US with weapons and training.

The ISIL camps in Syria are described as open-air detention centers whose populations skyrocketed after the defeat of ISIL in 2019. Human rights organizations have long been criticizing the inhumane conditions in the overcrowded camps.

According to a report from Amnesty International, 47,000 people were being held in two camps, al-Hol and Roj, as of December 2023.

The Global Coalition — a group of 87 member states working to defeat ISIL — said in November there were 39,904 people in al-Hol, the population of which has been declining, the coalition said, because of increased repatriations.

Yet many countries, particularly in the West, are refusing to take back their citizens out of security concerns due to their alleged ISIL links.