Türkiye on Thursday slammed a group of Western countries which temporarily closed down their consulates in Istanbul over security concerns, accusing them of waging "psychological warfare" and attempting to wreck Türkiye's tourism.
Germany, the Netherlands and Britain were among the countries that shut down their consulates in the city of around 16 million people this week.
The German Embassy cited the risk of possible retaliatory attacks following in some European countries. The United States and other countries, meanwhile, issued travel warnings urging citizens to exercise vigilance.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said that the consulate closures and travel warnings were part of a Western plot to harm a rebound in Türkiye's tourism sector, following the coronavirus pandemic.
"On a day when we declared our aim of (attracting) 60 million tourists, at a time when 50.5 million tourists arrived and we obtained $46 billion in tourism revenue, they were on the verge of starting a new psychological warfare (against) Türkiye," Minister Soylu stressed in his comments.
Soylu said Türkiye had conducted as many as 60 operations against the Daesh [ISIS] terror group so far this year and detained 95 people. Last year, close to 2,000 Daesh [ISIS] suspects were detained in more than 1,000 operations against the group, he said.
Earlier this week, the Interior Ministry said Turkish authorities had detained a number of suspects following a warning from a "friendly country," but hadn't found any weapons, ammunition or sign of a planned act of violence.
