Turkish authorities have arrested more than 100 suspected members of the Islamic State (ISIS) who were believed to be planning attacks during the Christmas and New Year festive season, officials said on Thursday.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that intelligence indicated ISIS operatives were preparing to target non-Muslim communities during Christian celebrations in Turkey. Acting on this information, police carried out coordinated raids across Istanbul, arresting 115 suspects out of 137 identified individuals. Firearms and ammunition were also seized during the operations.
Prosecutors said several of those detained were already wanted on terrorism-related charges at both national and international levels.
The arrests follow a recent intelligence-led operation near the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, where Turkish authorities captured a Turkish national accused of holding a senior position within ISIS. The suspect, identified as Mehmet Goren, is alleged to have been involved in planning suicide attacks against civilians in Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of Europe.
According to intelligence officials, Goren had travelled from Turkey to the border region, where he reportedly operated in ISIS camps and rose through the group’s ranks.
Turkey has been repeatedly targeted by ISIS in past years. In January 2024, a gun attack on a Catholic church in Istanbul during Sunday Mass left one person dead. Earlier, an ISIS gunman killed 39 people celebrating New Year’s Day at a nightclub in Istanbul in 2017.
Between 2015 and 2017, ISIS carried out several deadly attacks in Turkey, including bombings at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport and in Diyarbakır, as well as a suicide attack on a peace rally in Ankara in October 2015 that killed at least 102 people, the deadliest terrorist attack in the country’s history.
Turkish authorities say intelligence gathering and counterterrorism operations against ISIS networks, both domestically and internationally, have been significantly intensified in recent years to prevent further attacks.
