Turkey summons Tunisian envoy over remarks accusing Turkey of helping jihadists

Turkey on Friday summoned Tunisian envoy over Tunisian Foreign Minister Taieb Baccouche's accusations saying Turkey facilitated traveling of jihadist fighters to neighboring Syria and Iraq, local Hurriyet Daily News reported.

"Tunisia by no means accused Turkey," ambassador of Tunisia Mohamed Salah Tekaya told Turkish Foreign Ministry officials. The report quoted a Turkish diplomat, who asked not to be named, as saying.

Tekaya also said his government appreciated Turkey for sending Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus to attend a rally marking a terrorist attack on Tunis' Bardo Museum.

Baccouche said on Thursday that his country has asked its ambassador in Turkey to draw the attention of the Turkish authorities to the fact that it does not want a Muslim nation such as Turkey to help directly or indirectly terrorism in Libya by facilitating the movements of terrorists.

Turkey is a "passage point" for fighters who travel to Syria or for those who go to Libya and then infiltrate the porous border into Tunisia, Baccouche added.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that around 1,154 foreign fighters have been deported from Turkey and that 19,500 people are banned from traveling to the country.

Ankara has stepped up border security since 2014, amid mounting criticism that it has not done enough to halt the flow of foreign fighters into the region, particularly from Western countries. Endit