Turkey–ISIL conflict

Greece's "provocative" actions, rhetoric and efforts for armament will not provide any benefit beyond increasing the tension in the region, a National Security Council (MGK) statement said on Jan. 25.

Türkiye will not allow any sort of fait accompli that targets its national security and interests, the council said following a meeting at the helm of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Turkey has cancelled indefinitely a trilateral mechanism meeting with Sweden and Finland scheduled for February after a weekend protest in Stockholm that drew condemnation from Ankara, state broadcaster TRT reported on Tuesday.

Some 506 PKK terrorists have been neutralized so far in the Operation Claw-Lock, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has stated, adding that the Zap region in northern Iraq has been largely cleared of terrorists.

Türkiye has strongly slammed Sweden for allowing anti-Islam and anti-Türkiye protests near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm and has canceled Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson's next week visit to Türkiye during which the Scandinavian country's NATO application was planned to be discussed.

The mood in Ankara was not a bright one in the aftermath of the meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Washington, as it did not produce the results it anticipated, at least based on what is being discussed publicly. 

The United States has proposed to launch a new study and cooperation with Türkiye on Syria, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said, reiterating that this can be possible only after the former gains Türkiye's confidence by keeping the promises it gave in the past years.

The gendarmerie have detained nine ISIL members during simultaneous operations in the capital Ankara, Istanbul and the southern province of Adana.

Under the coordination of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office terror crimes investigation bureau, provincial gendarmerie launched an investigation against ISIL members who entered Türkiye illegally.

Seven ISIL terrorists planning to carry out suicide attacks in metropolitan cities have been caught in simultaneous operations conducted in seven provinces.

The proceedings of the suspects caught in the operations held in the provinces of Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Afyonkarahisar, Ankara, Bursa and Adana continue at the provincial gendarmerie commands.

Turkey summoned Sweden's ambassador to Ankara on Thursday, a diplomatic source said, over a demonstration in Stockholm in which a puppet of President Tayyip Erdogan was hung from its feet.

A PKK member who helped Bilal Hassan escape abroad, one of the suspects of the terror attack on Istanbul's İstiklal Avenue last November, which claimed the lives of six people and wounded several dozen, has been caught in Bulgaria.