Turkish security forces have eliminated two wanted PKK terrorists listed in the orange category in an operation in southeastern Türkiye, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Tuesday.
The terrorists, Ilhan Tekinalp, code-named "Ferhat Serhildan," and Recep Kipçak, known as "Devrim Cudi," were eliminated in the "Gürz-24" operation conducted by Turkish gendarmerie in the rural Pervari area of Siirt province, Yerlikaya said on X.
The operation came after Wednesday's PKK terrorist attack on the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) headquarters in the capital, Ankara, killed five people and injured 22 others.
Both terrorists were suspected regional leaders of the Kato Jirka area, the minister added.
The operation, coordinated by the Gendarmerie General Command's Intelligence and Counterterrorism Departments, was based on intelligence from the Mardin Provincial Gendarmerie Command.
Utilizing J-SIHA drones, Jandarma ATAK helicopters and armored vehicles, the Siirt Provincial Gendarmerie Command deployed special operations teams, gendarmerie commando units and security guards.
Authorities reported that the terrorists "operated in the so-called Botan region," using threats and blackmail to obtain supplies from locals and planning attacks on security forces, according to the minister.
They had allegedly instructed others to carry out attacks on citizens working in highland pastures and were involved in the murder of a civilian on Sept. 13, 2023, in the highlands between Şırnak’s Beytüşşebap and Van’s Çatak regions.
Yerlikaya reaffirmed Türkiye's commitment to its counterterrorism efforts, pledging: "We will not stop until the last terrorist is eliminated.”
The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist organization in Türkiye, Europe and the United States, has been waging a bloody terror campaign against the Turkish state since the 1980s to achieve a so-called Kurdish self-rule in southeastern regions.
According to the International Crisis Group, the conflict has shifted from Türkiye to northern Iraq and northern Syria since 2019, after the Turkish military continued to push back PKK terrorists.
In northern Syria, Türkiye controls two large strips of territory along the border as a result of several military operations and cooperates with the Syrian opposition against the PKK and its U.S.-backed Syrian offshoot, the YPG.
Tens of thousands of people have already died in the conflict. A peace process failed in 2015. Speculation about a new process between the Turkish government and the PKK emerged shortly before the attack in Ankara.
