UK Prime Minister David Cameron is to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday in Ankara. Talks are aimed at building on existing counter-terrorism cooperation between the two countries. They will also discuss the issue of foreign fighters traveling to the country en route to join the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
RT reports: Cameron will discuss the problem of UK citizens entering Turkey to slip through the border with Syria to join ISIS. Turkey’s 800-mile-long, porous border with Syria and Iraq has served as the main gateway for foreign fighters wishing to join militant groups.
Cameron and Erdoğan are also expected to discuss Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union, which the UK supports.
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Asked whether Cameron would raise concerns about human rights abuses and repression in Turkey, his spokesman claimed: “No issue is ever off the table.”
“The focus, particularly given current events in Syria and Iraq and in that region, will be CT (counter terrorism) and ISIL,” he added. “Certainly people traveling overseas from the UK to take part in terror activity is very much part of that relationship we have with [Turkey],” Cameron’s spokesman added.
