French President François Hollande has demanded from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to tighten measures to prevent French youth from joining jihadist fighters, according to French sources.
Hollande told Erdoğan during a one-hour Paris meeting June 20 that France was looking into developing a close cooperation with Turkey on the issue, sources has said.
Erdoğan, for his part, said the fact that Turkey is a tourism destination was making such controls harder. “Give us a list so that we can do what is necessary,” Erdoğan said reportedly.
Turkey has deported 22 young French citizens, who wanted to join jihadists, so far and there are some 200 more in the region, the Turkish prime minister said.
Erdoğan visited France to attend the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Union of European Turkish Democrats, or UETD, as Turkey’s European Union Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz and a number of bureaucrats accompanied him.
Hollande renewed his country’s support in Turkey’s EU bid as parties pledged to develop mutual economic ties, according to Turkish sources.
Ukraine was another item on the agenda as parties discussed the energy safety of the continent and the role of the ongoing Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project, which will carry the Azerbaijan gas to western Turkey, before it is transferred to Europe.
