No citizens of Albania were involved in the attack that killed three members of the Turkish security forces, authorities say. Those arrested were ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, Macedonia and Switzerland.
TIRANA, March 24 – Turkish authorities have arrested three ethnic Albanians accused of a suspected terror attack that claimed the lives of a Turkish soldier and two policemen near the Syrian border last week.
Turkish authorities said they believed the men were affiliated with radical groups and were coming from Syria when they were pulled over by police in a rural stretch of highway.
Early news identified the men simply as Albanians, forcing the Albanian Interior Ministry to come out in an official statement to make it clear that no citizens of Albania were involved.
The news came at the heels of the announcement that Albanian authorities had arrested seven people who were recruiting people to go fight in Syria in the name of the religion.
Authorities later said the three Albanians arrested in Turkey were not from Albania proper but from neighboring Macedonia and Kosovo. One of them was a Swiss citizen as well, likely the son of Kosovo immigrants to the Alpine country.
The three men were arrested after last Thursday’s attack, in which assailants opened fire on security forces carrying out a highway patrol near the town of Ulukisla, close to the Syrian border.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan labelled the shooting a “vile act of terror” and said the three security officers killed were “martyrs.”
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said the attackers had “a link with Syria,” without giving further details. Turkish media reported they were affiliated with militant Islamist organizations operating in Syria.
News agency Dogan said the three suspects, aged between 18 and 23, had crossed the border from Syria into Turkey via the Hatay province then caught a taxi toward Istanbul.
Albanian authorities are pursuing extremist groups that recruit Muslims to fight in Syria and elsewhere.
The country’s state police arrested a seven-member group last week that allegedly recruited about 80 Muslims and organized their transport to Syria.
Police said the recruits travelled to Syria by car via Istanbul and underwent military training in Aleppo. As per Albanian law, each fighter faces a 10-year prison sentence if they return.
Albania’s Islamic Community Organization reaffirmed its stand against the country’s Muslims getting involved in Syria and other conflicts.
“Participation in conflicts and inciting violence is not in accordance with the spirit of the Islamic religion,” it said in a statement.
