ANKARA
Turkey has deported 5,000 suspected terrorists and banned 53,000 from travelling to Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday.
“More than 3,000 Daesh terrorists, including the heads, were neutralized in Operation Euphrates Shield,” Erdogan added in an Ankara news conference with Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
He said suspected terrorists from South Asia were among the thousands deported from Turkey.
Euphrates Shield saw Free Syrian Army fighters backed by the Turkish military take territory in northern Syria from Daesh between August last year and March.
The operation had led to Turkey “completely” clearing its borders of Daesh and allowing 100,000 Syrians to return to their country, Erdogan said.
During the meeting, Erdogan said, regional issues and latest developments in Qatar came under discussion.
“We had the opportunity to discuss mutual steps that can be taken to combat terrorism in the world,” he said.
Intelligence sharing, combating terror
"We are entering a critical period in which we need to be much more careful and maximize intelligence sharing. We have to prevent Daesh terrorists driven from the territories they occupied from entering our country or other target countries,” Erdogan said.
"As leaders closely following global developments, we know this fact very well that the Asia Pacific region's efficiency is growing day by day. Asian countries are becoming more influential in the global economy and trade,” he added.
Widodo said that Indonesia and Turkey have enormous potential for cooperation.
“We have decided to strengthen Indonesia-Turkey anti-terror security cooperation. We would like to do so by sharing intelligence,” he added.
Widodo said that the two leaders had been discussing ways to reduce obstacles to trade and forming a favorable investment set-up.
“We have already been cooperating in fields of aviation, maritime and energy,” he said.
Widodo also said they had agreed to cooperate in manufacturing submarines and drones, along with floating power plants to meet Indonesia’s needs for electricity.
Speaking about the Gulf crisis he said, “I hope communication channels open and constructive dialogue help overcome this issue. Both sides should agree to talk with each other to end this dispute.”
The two leaders also attended the signing ceremonies including Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between Turkey and Indonesia.
Erdogan said he would attend the G20 summit to be held in Germany on Friday along with the Indonesian president.
