Another PKK terrorist surrendered to Turkish security forces, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.
The terrorist, who operated in Iraq, surrendered after persuasion efforts by the Turkish police and gendarmerie, it said in a statement.
The number of terrorists who have laid down their arms through persuasion efforts in 2022 stands at 74, it added.
In Türkiye, offenders linked to terror groups who surrender are eligible for possible sentence reductions under a repentance law.
A significant number of suspected terrorists have begun to abandon the PKK terrorist group and surrender, but many terrorists lack the courage to leave out of fear of severe punishment if caught.
According to Turkish officials, in recent years the PKK, which has been battered and demoralized by successful Turkish security operations, has been losing members and failing to attract recruits.
Protests by a group of families in front of the pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) office in Diyarbakır demanding the return of their sons and daughters, who were recruited or kidnapped to fight for the terrorist group, have also helped increase the number of people surrendering.
Calls made by the families to their children urging them to return home and surrender, as well as the persuasion efforts by security forces, have been influential.
For more than 40 years, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
Since 2016, Ankara has launched a trio of successful counterterrorism operations across its border in northern Syria and northern Iraq to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018) and Peace Spring (2019).
