More than 40 people have been arrested in Turkey on charges of having connections with the terrorist organization known as the “Islamic State,” according to Ali Yerlikaya, a spokesperson for the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Yerlikaya provided this information through a post on his Facebook page, stating that the arrests were part of a larger counterterrorism operation carried out in 12 provinces across the country. Istanbul alone saw the arrest of 10 individuals, who were found in possession of an arsenal of weapons. In a separate incident, eight people were arrested in Istanbul for their role in organizing terrorist activities, with one of them discovered to be in possession of a powerful improvised explosive device. Over the course of the past year, more than 3,000 people have been arrested in Turkey for their affiliations with ISIS, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.