Australia and Turkey have agreed to coordinate their efforts against terrorism as part of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s visit to Turkey to attend Gallipoli landing centenary commemorations.
Australian authorities believe over 100 Australians are fighting in Iraq and Syria and there are concerns that there are more radicalized individuals wishing to join them.
Mr Abbott met with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu to discuss cooperation, coordination and information sharing to prevent Australians using Turkey as a transit country and to facilitate the deportation of Australians intercepted in Turkey who had been planning to join the ISIS legion of foreign fighters.
"Our co-operation is deepening and I am confident that as a result of the co-operation, as a result of the additional warmth that I think this meeting, this visit has generated that Australians who are wishing to transit through Turkey to Syria and Iraq will find it much, much more difficult. And again my message to any Australian who is thinking of such a thing is "Don't do it. Don't go," he said in a joint media conference televised live on TRT.
Mr Davatoglu said his country is ready to co-operate with Australia to fight all terrorist groups and needs more intelligence in this regard.
Turkey has long accused the West of not sharing sufficient intelligence to help detection of foreign fighters on their way to join the DAESH. The country’s foreign ministry said early April that they have placed a travel ban on 12 500 suspected foreign fighters, deported over 1 000 and blacklisted 5 000 thanks to Turkey’s own intelligence.
In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, Mr Abbott and Mr Davutoglu said they have agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation to counter terrorism, tackle terrorist financing and mitigate the threats from foreign fighters.
“Both parties underlined the importance of identifying and stopping foreign terrorist fighters travelling to conflict zones, at their country of departure,” it read.
The two countries will use all avenues to tackle the scourge of terrorism including sharing information that will lead to prosecution of terrorists, and developing an effective counter narrative to extremist ideology especially online.
“The Prime Ministers welcomed progress towards a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty and agreed to commence work on an MOU on the return of foreign fighters”, said the joint statement.
