UPDATE - Türkiye slams Western countries for closing consulates over security reasons

UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS BY TURKISH INTERIOR MINISTER

By Ali Kemal Akan

ANKARA (AA) – Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu on Thursday described the move by some Western countries of closing their consulates in Türkiye citing security reasons as “psychological warfare” against his nation.

During an event in the Turkish capital Ankara, Soylu touched upon the temporary consulate closures by countries including Germany, the UK and the Netherland in Türkiye, saying: “On a day when we set our target of 60 million tourists, at a time when we announced that 51.5 million tourists came and we achieved a tourism income of $46 billion, they were on the verge of launching a new psychological war (against) Türkiye. That is very clear.”

Soylu said that an intelligence officer of a third country offered to recruit several people who are suspected to have ties to the terror group Daesh/ISIS and this process was closely watched by Turkish authorities. The intelligence officer later left the Türkiye, he added.

As the intelligence officer failed to yield any fruit with his efforts, his first move was to sell the information he had to the country which reacted first and this situation led to the allegations of a possible Daesh attack in Türkiye in an effort to conduct a psychological warfare against our country, Soylu added.

He underscored that Türkiye’s fight against Daesh/ISIS continues, and they have carried out 60 operations against the terror group this year so far.

“In 2022, we carried out 1,042 operations, almost three operations per day,” Soylu said.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan​​​​​​​