Eight individuals were apprehended on May 1st in connection with an alleged conspiracy to bomb communist May Day marches in Istanbul. This brings the total number of individuals apprehended by Turkish authorities in the last week who are believed to have links to the terrorist Islamic State (ISIS) group to over a hundred.
Every year on May 1st, communists commemorate May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day. The official reason is to honor the worldwide worker movements and their contributions to society, but in reality, it is more commonly used to promote communist ideology, which is responsible for over 100 million deaths globally.
Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has barred leftists from holding their festivities in Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square, forcing them to find smaller venues.
Terrorists with a jihadist agenda intended to detonate bombs during May Day celebrations, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on social media. Yerlikaya named the main suspect as a Syrian national identified as K.A. He was a terrorist linked to ISIS who knew how to make bombs and had explosive materials at home that could detonate large-scale explosives.
Terrorist analysts have expressed concern that ISIS is regrouping and recruiting in Central Asia and the Middle East.
As of Monday’s operation, 105 individuals had been apprehended in a week for claimed links to ISIS. Over the last ten months, Turkish officials have carried out four distinct operations in around 20 provinces. As a result, they have imprisoned over 3,000 people in almost 1,500 operations targeting what is believed to be an ISIS network.
While not all of the people were actively involved with weapons and bombs, some were named as propagandists who shared pro-ISIS information on social media profiles. Yerlikaya emphasized once again that several individuals apprehended were supposedly plotting assaults on May Day celebrations.
Erdogan claims credit for destroying the ISIS caliphate in Raqqa, Syria when he was before accused of having amiable links to the Islamic State.
Following the first attack in eight years on a Roman Catholic church in Istanbul in January, Erdogan has stepped up his emphasis on the organization.
Realistically, Raqqa was freed and the terror state terminated with the help of the U.S. military and the Syrian Defense Forces (SDF), a coalition of militias dominated by Kurds.
