Turkey issues travel ban on 12,500 foreign fighters

Turkey issued a travel ban on more than 12,500 foreign fighters and deported 1,200 who aim to join the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.

Most of the foreign fighters were decided by Turkey's own intelligence information, not by source countries of foreign fighters, the minister said at a ceremony for training program of foreign diplomats.

In January, Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala stated that Turkey had put a ban on 7,833 suspected people and deported 1,056 foreign fighters.

Turkey has beefed up security measures to prevent foreign fighters from crossing into Syria through Turkish territory amid Western countries' criticism that Ankara did not make its best to stem foreign fighters from joining ranks of the IS in Syria.

Ankara often calls on European countries to share more information on suspected foreign fighters and asks for stopping them before they travel to Turkey.

Turkey cannot shoulder alone the responsibility of stemming the flow of foreign fighters into Syria, the Turkish foreign minister said earlier.

Turkish media reported that the increase in figures for foreign fighters banned from entering Turkey is a result of enhanced cooperation between Turkey and source countries in Europe.

Coalition forces against the IS militants formed a working group to stem flow of foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq in a meeting on Tuesday in the Turkish city of Istanbul, a Turkish official said on Thursday. Endit