Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced the arrest of 33 individuals in the Sakarya province, located in the western part of the country, on suspicions of planning terrorist attacks ahead of the municipal elections scheduled for March 31.
Minister Yerlikaya shared on the social media platform X that the arrests were made during a security operation targeting the ISIS terrorist organization in Sakarya, detaining those suspected of affiliations with the group.
Yerlikaya further elaborated that among those detained were individuals preparing for terrorist acts on the eve of the elections, involved in sending militants to conflict zones, providing financial assistance to terrorists, and operating illegal mosques and schools.
During the raids, security forces confiscated weapons, ammunition, banned publications, and a significant amount of currency.
A Turkish court earlier decided to detain six individuals for allegedly selling information obtained within Turkey to the Israeli external intelligence service, “Mossad”.
The state-run Anadolu Agency reported that the Fourth Penal Court of Peace in Istanbul ordered the detention of six people following their interrogation by the public prosecutor’s office.
The agency also mentioned that the same court decided to release one individual who had been detained along with the six accused, subject to judicial supervision.
Turkish authorities have recently intensified their efforts against espionage activities, particularly those linked to Israel’s Mossad.
