Istanbul Police Department made a press statement about the operation on Al-Qaida which was conducted on January 22, 2010. 57 members of the organization were detained during the operation. It was stated that the detained members traveled abroad in legal or illegal ways and stayed in jihad areas and they organized camps in these regions to train other members of the organization. Some of the members had contacts with the European, Turkish and Syrian representative Louai Sakka.
Two imams were among the suspects that were interrogated by the police. It was argued that retired imam Mehmet D. was the leader of the organization in Turkey and former Islamist Vakit newspaper writer Mustafa K. was the intellectual leader of the organization. It was said that Mustafa K. left the Vakit newspaper 3 years ago and joined Al-Qaida in 2000. It was argued that Mustafa K met with the higher executives of the organization from Europe and Azerbeijan.
Source: Radikal (Turkey), January 25, 2010
