Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced on Thursday that 16 caves were hit in an operation carried out in the 140-kilometer-deep (almost 90-mile-deep) region in northern Iraq.
Akar was speaking on the program "City Meetings Towards 2023" in the southeastern Turkish town of Şırnak.
He stated that they respect the territorial integrity of all neighbors, especially Iraq and Syria, and their sovereignty rights. "Syrians are our brothers, Iraqis are our brothers. There is no problem with that. Our problem is terrorists. We are after terrorists. This struggle will continue until the last terrorist is eliminated,” Akar said.
Noting that the Claw Operations started after 2019, Akar stated that the most recent, Claw-Lock, is currently ongoing in northern Iraq's Zap.
Stating that terrorists were targeted with great determination, Akar said: "The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) entered 140 kilometers, hit and successfully destroyed 16 terrorist caves, bunkers, shelters and so-called command posts in Asos. This will continue. They really thought that Turkish soldiers could not reach them. Turkish soldiers have entered all of the places and continue to clean each spot one by one."
“We continue to stand by our friends, brothers and allies in their just cause, especially our brothers in Cyprus. There is no complacency until the last terrorist is neutralized. The last terrorist will be neutralized. We will save our noble nation from this terrorist scourge. We are determined to end terrorism. The PKK terrorist organization is never the representative of our Kurdish brothers. Just as Daesh has never been the representative of Muslims, the terrorist groups cannot be the representative of our Kurdish brothers, no matter what their name is.”
Akar also referred to the grain crisis in his speech and said, “Our President Erdoğan solved the grain crisis with telephone diplomacy. The whole world has understood our value, and they will continue to do so.”
In addition, Akar made statements about the recent crisis with Greece.
“Unfortunately, Greece is a bad neighbor. They do this to mess things up. We are in favor of Greece abandoning these behaviors and solving the problem by peaceful means and methods. Whether they come here or we go to Greece, let's fix these problems. Türkiye is not a threat to anyone, it is not a danger. The Greek people suffer the most from the tension.”
