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Turkey, Switzerland Deport Syria-bound French Citizens

Turkish authorities have detained and then deported a French national who arrived in the country seeking to join jihadists in Syria, an official said Friday.

The man, identified only as B.T., had landed Thursday night at Sabiha Gokcen airport in Istanbul on a flight from Milan, the Turkish official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

After arousing the suspicion of border police, he was detained and questioned. 

"After a long and detailed interview, B.T. confessed he was going to Adana (in southern Turkey) on his way to join a terrorist group in Syria," the official said.

The man was deported back to Italy as the country of the flight's origin, with the French authorities kept fully informed, he added.

Turkey has been at pains in the last months to stress it is doing all it can to stop would-be militants from Europe joining Islamic State (IS) jihadists who have seized swathes of neighboring Syria and Iraq.

The government says it has put over 13,500 foreign citizens -- 18 percent of whom are of European or North American origin -- from 98 countries on an entry blacklist to stop them traveling to join IS. 

Turkey, which shares a total of 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) of borders with Iraq and Syria, has angrily rejected suggestions it has not done enough to halt the flow of militants.

It said it has already deported more than 1,350 people suspected of seeking to join IS and has set up special "risk centers" at airports to question suspect travelers.

Turkey, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has always insisted that the exit of president Bashar Assad is the key to solving the Syrian crisis.

Meanwhile, Switzerland has extradited a French teenager who was trying to reach Syria for a second time since March, the justice ministry said Friday.

The 18-year-old was sent back to France on Thursday following a demand from French authorities, the ministry said. He had been arrested on May 14.

The Tribune de Geneve newspaper said the teenager left Geneva on May 12 for Istanbul in a second attempt to go on to Syria.

The following day, France issued an international warrant for his arrest. He was sent back to Switzerland on May 14 and arrested.

He had tried to travel to Syria in March but was stopped in Munich in Germany as he was still a minor.

The young man's mother told the Tribune de Geneve that he had changed completely in the span of three months and became radicalized after the January jihadist attacks in Paris that killed 17 people.

"He said he could not practice his religion peacefully in France, he used words that were not his, he was under a spell," said his mother, a teacher from northern France.

The Paris attacks led to a series of anti-terrorism laws coming into effect in France aimed at stopping people from traveling out of the country if they are suspected of trying to join jihadist groups. 

Some 1,400 people living in France have either joined the jihadist cause in Syria and Iraq or are planning to do so, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in March.

Source: Agence France Presse


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