Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that more than 700 PKK terrorists were eliminated or captured alive from January to October in more than 40,500 operations in the country.
Yerlikaya said at the Planning and Budget Committee of the Turkish Grand National Assembly that terrorists were eliminated or captured in operations conducted in rural and urban areas.
Yerlikaya reported that 4,177 operations were conducted against the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) between Jan. 1 and Nov. 1, with 935 people arrested and 655 detained in 1,205 operations against the terrorist group Daesh. “In the first 10 months of this year, 92 terrorist attacks, 72 of which involved bombings, were prevented,” Yerlikaya stressed.
Thirty-five so-called high-level terrorists were eliminated so far this year, he added.
In its 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S. and the EU, has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children, infants and the elderly. The YPG is PKK’s Syrian offshoot.
Ankara accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
Strikes on the terrorist group have only intensified in the past two years. The PKK mounted an attack in the capital Ankara last month, as two of its members attempted to raid the headquarters of the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), killing five and injuring 22 others.
Last week, as he spoke about a possible normalization with Syria’s Assad regime, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hinted at a large-scale military offensive in that country against the PKK/YPG.
Speaking of a possible reconciliation with Syria, Erdogan said Türkiye has reached out for normalization, expressing its belief that it would open the door to peace and stability in Syrian territories.
Cross-border operations are always in the cards for the country’s security, he said, expressing readiness to launch them anytime the country feels threatened as he spoke to reporters during a return flight from Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan. Türkiye has launched several cross-border operations in recent years, in both northern Syria and northern Iraq, targeting terrorists who hide out there and destabilize the border or plot attacks on Turkish soil.