Communication is the key: Ala (left) and Cazeneuve at the joint news conference after their meeting in Ankara.
AFP/Ankara
The French interior minister on Friday held talks with his Turkish counterpart aimed at improving intelligence and security communications after an embarrassing bungle allowed three suspected jihadists who fought in Syria to walk free.
Bernard Cazeneuve met Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala days after a communications breakdown between the two sides allowed the three suspects to saunter out of a French airport unhindered after being deported from Turkey.
The mishap also highlighted the importance of smooth intelligence co-operation with Turkey amid the US-led campaign against Islamic State (IS) militants who have advanced to positions close to the Turkish border.
“The events of the last 48 hours came about as a result of a lack of communication between our services,” Cazeneuve said. “Measures need to be taken to improve our communications.”
He said after the talks that he would be returning to Paris with a new set of arrangements, which would include Turkey giving France a longer notice period before deporting suspected jihadists.
“You can never say there is zero risk but we will proceed to adjustments,” he said. “I never came here to settle accounts or to accuse. The (French-Turkish) co-operation is strong. It led to the expulsion of 40 French citizens back to France.”
The trio, including the 29-year-old brother-in-law of Toulouse jihadist Mohamed Merah who was shot dead by police after he murdered seven in a 2012 killing spree, had been arrested by the Turkish authorities and were being deported to France.
According to the French interior ministry, the pilot of the Paris-bound flight refused to allow them on board. The Turkish authorities put them on the flight to Marseille.
Paris says it was not informed of this change, meaning the stunned suspects were able to walk out of Marseille airport unchallenged. They later turned themselves in.
The French government has sought to deflect responsibility for the debacle, saying that it came about largely due to a lack of proper co-operation with the Turkish authorities.
The three men were believed to have been in Turkey after returning from Syria and are suspected of seeking to recruit jihadists to fight with the Islamist militants.
Cazeneuve warned after the meeting that the “terror threat” to France itself was real. “There is a total mobilisation of our services, we need to be careful.”
Nato member Turkey has been criticised by some of its Western allies for failing to stop Islamic militants from European countries who travel to Syria through Turkey by land after arriving at Turkish airports.
The number of Europeans joining Islamist fighters in Syria and Iraq has jumped by a third to around 3,000 in a few months, EU counter-terrorism chief Gilles de Kerchove told AFP in Brussels on Tuesday.
Ala, the Turkish minister, sought after the meeting to underline Turkey’s commitment to stemming the flow of militants, saying that it was “strongly fighting against the jihadist militants and is blocking them at the border”.
He said 6,620 people coming from 81 different countries have been banned from entering Turkey and that 1,013 others coming from 73 countries have been deported.
“We expect the native countries (of the jihadists) to warn Turkey and to prevent them from leaving their territory.
“We will make it happen that the mechanisms of co-operation that have been established between our countries function with the minimum errors possible.”
