ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkey’s president said Monday he sees hypocrisy in the West’s reaction to last week’s terror attacks in Paris and asked why two of the gunmen were not monitored more closely after being released from prison.
“Doesn’t the intelligence service there follow those who have been released,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Two of the gunmen in the Paris attacks, Amed Coulibaly and Sherif Kouachi, had served prison sentences.
Erdogan’s comments come as Turkey faces questions about how the common law wife of one of the perpetrators passed through Turkey shortly before the attacks and later crossed into Syria.
Germany’s domestic intelligence chief urged Turkey to do more to prevent extremists crossing its territory to join the Islamic State group and other terrorist organizations.