2015 police raids in Turkey

2015 police raids in Turkey
Part of the Turkey–ISIL conflict and the Turkey–PKK conflict
Police officers conducting a raid on terrorist suspects on 24 July 2015 – present
Type	Police raids
Location	Over 64 Provinces of Turkey
Planned by	Ahmet Davutoğlu (as Prime Minister of Turkey) Sebahattin Öztürk (as Minister of the Interior)
Commanded by	Turkish government
Target	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Kurdistan Workers' Party DHKP/C
Date	24 July 2015 (2015-07-24) 3:00 (EEST)
Executed by	General Directorate of Security KDGM
Outcome	3.768 suspected terrorists detained 981 terrorists arrested
Casualties	1 suspect killed during a police raid in İstanbul

The 2015 police raids in Turkey were a series of police raids conducted by the General Directorate of Security in 16 different Provinces of Turkey. The operations were largely seen as a response to the suicide bombing in Suruç on 20 July 2015 that killed 32 people, as well as a series of attacks by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on the police and military positions in Adıyaman and Ceylanpınar.

The operations began at around 3 am local time, after Turkish soldiers and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants engaged in a conflict in the town of Kilis near the Syria–Turkey border. The Turkish government, under significant political pressure to respond to the terrorist attacks by ISIL, subsequently began the police operations against suspects from ISIL, the PKK and also the far-left militant Revolutionary People's Liberation Party–Front (DKHP/C). By midday on 25 July 2015, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu stated that 590 suspects had been arrested.

Turkey had maintained a policy of inaction against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) despite international calls to do more to combat the terrorist group. Turkish soldiers and ISIL militants have been involved in unexpected clashes in the past and ISIL has also been linked to the 2013 Reyhanlı bombings, the 2015 Istanbul suicide bombing and the 2015 Diyarbakır rally bombing. On 20 July 2015, 32 socialist activists planning to cross the border to help with relief efforts in the Syrian town of Kobanî were killed in a suicide bombing in Suruç, Şanlıurfa Province. The perpetrator was identified as a member of the Dokumacılar, a terrorist group linked to ISIL. On 23 July, ISIL militants and Turkish soldiers clashed near the Turkish border town of Elbeyli, with the Turkish Air Force subsequently beginning an airstrike against ISIL positions across the border.