“We will preserve our will to realize the terror-free Türkiye initiative with resolve and sensitivity,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said as he addressed prospective recruits of the Turkish army on Thursday.
“Terror-free” Türkiye refers to an initiative launched last year by Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the government’s ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The initiative led to the PKK terrorist group’s jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, calling on the group to lay down arms and dissolve in February.
The PKK has killed thousands since the 1980s across Türkiye, and despite counterterrorism campaigns, it has remained a major terrorism threat for years. It expanded into Iraq and Syria, though its main target has been Türkiye, where attacks claimed the lives of civilians and members of security forces alike.
Speaking in a video call to a ceremony for prospective commandos joining the army in an elite military training base in the western province of Isparta, Erdoğan praised the army’s sacrifice to fight terrorists over the years. He stated that security forces’ operations helped them to fully “neutralize” the presence of the group in Türkiye and its ability to carry out major terrorist attacks.
“Our cross-border operations also brought us to a point where we are close to eradicating terrorism at its source,” he said.
The PKK’s senior cadres are in hiding in a mountainous region in northern Iraq, colloquially known as “Kandil” after the Qandil mountain in the region. The YPG, an offshoot of the group, meanwhile, thrived in Syria amid the civil war. In Syria, Türkiye launched three major offensives targeting both the PKK and Daesh during the civil war and drove the YPG out of several towns it had occupied in northern Syria. In Iraq, it still carries out airstrikes and ground operations against PKK members, utilizing outposts set up in the north.
Erdoğan stated that as the People’s Alliance, formed with the MHP, and the government, they were taking steps “reinforcing our brotherhood” to realize the goal of a terror-free Türkiye. The PKK, claiming to fight for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Türkiye, long exploited the country’s underprivileged Kurdish community to recruit members. Türkiye has sought to improve the rights of the community in the past two decades to deal a blow to the PKK’s influence in the region.
“When we achieved our terror-free Türkiye goal, when we completely ended this terrorism threat that sucked the life out of our country for 40 years, exploited our resources and pitted brother against brother, we will turn a new page and achieve a milestone in Century of Türkiye,” Erdoğan said. He was referring to the ambitious goals of development for Türkiye by the government unveiled ahead of the centenary of the Republic of Türkiye in 2023.
“Bear in mind that the Republic of Türkiye always favors peace and stability. We sincerely desire the prevalence of peace in our neighbors, in our region,” Erdoğan stated.
“We don’t want new crises to emerge in our region, embattled with instability and conflicts for years. We want a new climate of peace and security to prevail around us,” he said.