Three dead police officers and hundreds of arrests: for "Islamic State - Khorasan Province" Turkey has long been more than just a transit country. How dangerous is this branch of the terrorist organization for Europe and the whole world?
This news shocked all of Turkey on December 29: an operation against a cell of the so-called "Islamic State - Khorasan Province" (IS-PH) in the city of Yalova resulted in a fierce eight-hour shootout, in which three police officers were killed and eight other law enforcement officers and one security guard were injured - some of them seriously. According to the Turkish Interior Ministry, officers were investigating specific reports that the radical Islamist group was planning bloody attacks during New Year celebrations in Turkish cities.
The public was surprised by the fact that the six suspected terrorists killed in the operation were not foreigners but Turkish citizens. It was long believed that jihadist groups used Turkey primarily as a transit country for fighters from Central Asia or the Middle East. However, a different picture emerged in Yalova: the leader of the cell and its members were Turks, with a large arsenal of weapons and ready to fight to the death against their own country.
Two of the men killed on December 29 had already been in prison for membership in a terrorist organization and attempted murder. Although the authorities were aware of their radicalization, they were released on bail after only seven months in prison.
The documents in the case make it clear how deep the hatred these men felt: they even considered members of their own families to be "sinners and enemies" because they did not want to follow their ideology. According to authorities, police officers were declared legitimate targets, and one of the suspected terrorists even tried to kidnap his own mother and take her to IS-controlled territories in Afghanistan and Pakistan to make her follow what he considered to be the "only right path".
These details have sparked a fierce debate about whether the government has underestimated the danger posed by radical Islamists for years.
IS structures in Turkey have long been known
The presence of IS structures on Turkish territory is not a new phenomenon. It is estimated that since 2013, between 5,000 and 8,000 Turkish citizens have joined the Islamists in Syria and Iraq. They are trained in the terrorist organization's camps and then return to Turkey. In attacks carried out by such trained ISIS personnel, between 2015 and 2017, nearly 300 people were killed in Turkey - mostly human rights activists, liberals and Kurds.
The ISIS branch in Khorasan Province, established in 2015, has established itself in Turkey in recent years, and its networks have begun to operate much more professionally. As security expert Burak Yildirim explains, Turkey has long ceased to be just a transit country, but has served as a safe haven, a place for regrouping and a center for recruiting and financing. "Islamic State - Khorasan Province" is specifically looking for supporters among workers in the insecure peripheral areas of Turkey's major cities. "Especially those who consider the official line of the religious authorities to be too liberal, quickly fall into the sights of radical recruiters", says Yıldırım.
How did "IS – Khorasan Province" establish itself in Turkey?
After the victory of the international coalition against IS in 2019 in Syria and the seizure of power by the Taliban in 2021 in Afghanistan, many IS members fled to Turkey. Since then, the terrorist group has used the time to regroup.
With the help of IS structures in Central Asia, according to Turkish intelligence services, the Turkish branch of IS-PH is becoming increasingly professional. In its magazine Voice of Khorasan, "Islamic State" already calls Turkey the country with the most attacks and the most active logistical activity after Afghanistan.
A hard line against ISIS
For a long time, it seemed that Ankara tolerated jihadist groups as long as they fought against the Syrian Kurds and the Assad regime. Ankara allowed such groups to operate for purely geopolitical reasons, says Huseyin Çiçek, a political scientist at the University of Vienna. But since a partner that Ankara supports is now in power in Damascus, the focus has changed.
In addition, the immediate terrorist threat in the country has increased significantly since 2024. "For Ankara, the security of the country - on its entire territory - is now in first place," says Çiçek.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that in 2024 alone, the security services carried out nearly 1,400 operations against ISIS structures. This continued in 2025. For example, at the end of last year, in an operation that lasted several days, over 500 suspected members of ISIS-PH were arrested. Turkish secret services managed to capture and transfer to Turkey leaders of the organization who were in areas controlled by the group in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Çiçek and Yıldırım assess these actions as necessary to ensure the security of their own territory.
"Islamic State - Khorasan Province" has learned from its mistakes and territorial defeats in the Middle East," Yıldırım added. In recent years, the group has established strategic contacts with armed militias in Africa to secure new sources of weapons and combat strategies. "With this exchange, it has become even more dangerous", he says.
However, the strategic long-term goal remains unchanged: the conquest of territories with which to realize its ambitions for its own state.
According to information from the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), in 2024 a total of 23 ISIS provinces were registered worldwide, with the branch "Islamic State - Khorasan Province" being the most dangerous at the moment. Since 2024, the group has carried out bloody attacks in Iran, Russia and Australia. Although many of the planned attacks in Turkey, Europe and the United States have been prevented, experts warn that new attacks are possible at any time.
"Turkey and Europe have been living with this latent threat for years," says Çiçek. But the professionalism of the perpetrators, who increasingly have local roots, has reached a new level. And this presents the global community with great challenges, he assures.