"According to our Foreign Ministry's data, 12,520 people suspected of links with terrorist organizations have been banned from entering Turkey. We have deported a total of 1,170 people," Erdogan told a news conference.
The president added that the figures showed that Turkey was doing its part by containing the flow of foreign fighters and vowed to continue this effort.
Last Saturday, Turkey returned three teenagers to London after intercepting them at the request of the British authorities. All three teenagers were charged with preparing to carry out terrorist acts and arrested by the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command, according to media reports.
Turkey reportedly became a co-chair of a sub-committee on foreign fighters alongside the Netherlands in order to stem the flow of foreign fighters joining Islamists in neighboring Syria.
