MIT chief Kalın visits Türkiye’s SE border region for security talks

National Intelligence Organization (MIT) chief Ibrahim Kalın paid a visit to Türkiye’s southeastern border region on Wednesday for high-level security discussions, sources said.

Kalın visited Hakkari’s Yüksekova and Çukurca districts, where he met with Hakkari Governor Ali Çelik, Second Army Commander Gen. Levent Ergün, and other senior military and civil officials.

Talks focused on the security of Türkiye’s borders with Iraq, Iran and Syria, ongoing measures to combat threats in the region, the status of military outposts, and recent developments along the frontier.

Earlier on Wednesday, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said that it was time for the PKK terrorist group to start its disarmament and that Ankara expects it to happen “very soon.”

Government ally Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), launched a terror-free initiative last year with a daring call to the PKK to lay down arms, at the cost of alienating more hawkish nationalists who advocate more strict counterterrorism efforts to wipe out the PKK.

The initiative is endorsed by the government, and the group’s jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, consented to make a call to the group to abandon arms in February. Months later, the PKK announced it would dissolve itself, but it was unclear when it would physically hand over weapons to the authorities in Iraq, as media outlets reported. Turkish intelligence will reportedly oversee the disarmament process, although authorities have been tight-lipped about how the initiative will proceed.