The most important development in the 2010’s in the area of counter-terrorism is undoubtedly the birth of the DAESH terrorist organization and that it becomes a global threat within a short period of time. The organization feeding from the domestic conflicts, an instable environment and social inequalities happening in Iraq and Syria brought Mosul, one of the largest cities in Iraq, under its control within several days in 2014 and headed toward the capital, Baghdad.

This was a shocking development for the whole world. Because Usame bin Ladin, the head of Al-Qaida which was the biggest terrorist organization that the world had seen up until that time and which was known due to its 9/11 terrorist attacks, was killed in 2011 and many people assumed that terrorist organizations with so-called religious motivations would now lose their influences. However, the fact that DAESH controlled a large piece of land in Iraq and Syria in a short period of time and radicalized people in most parts of the world by taking advantage of developments in communication technologies was something that the international society was not really prepared for.

Supporting global counter-terrorism after 9/11, Turkey sent soldiers to Afghanistan and became the target of the bloody terrorist attacks by Al-Qaida. The biggest one of those was the bombing attacks that were organized at the Istanbul Consulate General of the United Kingdom, the headquarters of a foreign bank and a synagogue in 2003. Our country, rejecting the theory of the clash civilizations and leading the foundation of the Alliance of Civilizations, objected against associating the religion of Islam with terrorism and was in the forefront against the military and intellectual fight against the terrorists who uses religion as a means of violence.

As a matter of fact, Turkey had started taking precautions of preventing the Foreign Terrorist Fighters (YTS) from going into the engagement zone during the time when the threat of DAESH had not been around yet. Our country, having been left alone by the international society, has created Risk Analysis units at airports, bus terminals, railway terminals and customs gates despite the inadequacy of the measures taken against stopping intelligence exchange and terrorists in source countries and has caught thousands of terrorist suspects and sent them home thanks to these expert staff. (Some of the deported foreign terrorist fighters have been caught again with passports issued under different names). Additionally, passages have been blocked on the 911 kilometer long south border of Turkey by taking extra precautions and also the Turkish citizens joining the terrorist organizations active in the region remained at a very low level as a result of the on-going intellectual fight.

On the other hand, Turkey met DAESH with an attack that was organized at a area control point in Niğde in 2013. On the day of March 20, fire was opened against the security forces who wanted to pull over the suspect vehicle taking three foreign terrorists from Hatay to Istanbul. Two security officers and a civilian citizen were martyred during the clash. (The suspects were convicted with life imprisonment in 2018).

The next attack of the DAESH terrorist organization against Turkish citizens occurred when the Mosul Consulate General of the Republic of Turkey was raided and diplomats were taken hostage. Our citizens who were at the hands of terrorists for 101 days following the day when the event occurred on July 11, 2014 were rendered free.

And the bloodiest acts executed by the organization in Turkey was in the period of 2015-2016. 33 citizens lost their lives during a suicide attack that took place in the Suruç county of Şanlıurfa on July 20, 2015; and 103 people during an attack against the crowd gather for a meeting around the Ankara Railway Terminal on October 10. During that time, a cross-border operation in order to fend off the DAESH terrorist organization from the Turkey-Syria border was discussed, but it was dropped because of the FETÖ members who infiltrated the relevant institutions.

The DAESH attacks against Turkish citizens continued during that period. On June 28, 2016 at the Istanbul Atatürk Airport, 45 people were martyred by terrorists who attacked with automatic weapons and explosive substances. Several weeks later, on August 20, 2016, 57 people – 40 of whom were children – lost their lives and 69 people were injured during a suicide attack organized at a street wedding. So Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield in the purpose of wiping the terrorist members nesting in the north of Syria.

Within the scope of the operation that began in the morning of August 24, 2016, the Turkish Armed Forces and the Free Syrian Army conquered the strategic locations that the DAESH terrorist organization had, starting with Cerablus on the Turkey-Syria border. As such, El Bab was wiped from terror, the second biggest headquarters of the terrorists in Syria after Raqqa. Thus, Turkey became the first country to send militant forces to Syria against the DAESH terrorist organization.

Over 300.000 Syrian refugees who had to leave from the area of operation due to conditions of war returned to their lands after the completion of Operation Euphrates Shield. The stabilization of this area has proven how rightful Turkey’s call to “eliminate the underlying reasons of immigration for combatting irregular immigration” was.

On the other hand, the fact that the PKK/YPG terrorist organization sent thousands of blood terrorists to areas, which were wiped from terrorism by Turkey, with a secret agreement with the DAESH terrorist organization after the Raqqa operation and that the DAESH members who were prisoners during Operation Peace Spring were freed from the prisons so as to blackmail the international society has caused new challenges for Turkey. Our security forces who caught these persons with the cooperation of Syrian moderate opponents protected Europe and the world from a new terrorism wave.The Republic of Turkey determinedly continues its fight with the DAESH terrorist organization within and outside of the borders.