The PKK terrorist group, its Syrian offshoot YPG and Daesh threaten Türkiye’s borders and the territorial integrity of Syria and remain legitimate targets for Türkiye, the Defense Ministry said Thursday amid ongoing counterterrorism operations at home and across the Turkish border in Syria and Iraq.
Since last month’s fall of Bashar Assad, Türkiye has said repeatedly it was time for the YPG to disband. Ankara considers the group, which the U.S. calls its ally in the anti-Daesh coalition, as an extension of the PKK terrorist organization.
The PKK violence, which has spread beyond Türkiye's borders into Iraq and Syria, has killed tens of thousands of people.
Ankara has mounted multiple operations against the PKK/YPG in Syria since 2016. In Iraq, it maintains dozens of military bases and its airstrikes regularly target terrorist hideouts.
Türkiye has said the new Syrian administration must be given an opportunity to address the YPG presence but also threatened to mount a new cross-border operation against the PKK/YPG terrorists based in northeast Syria if its demands are not met.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called the YPG the biggest problem in Syria and warned the terrorist group would not be able to escape its inevitable end unless it lays down its arms.
Speaking to reporters at a weekly press briefing in the capital, Ankara, the Defense Ministry's press representative, Rear Adm. Zeki Aktürk, announced a total of 3,226 terrorists had been eliminated in counterterrorism operations in northern Iraq and Syria since Jan. 1, 2024, including a total of 62 in the past week alone.
Türkiye, in 2022, launched Operation Claw-Lock to target the terrorist group's hideouts in northern Iraq's Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan regions.
Regarding border security, Akturk said Turkish authorities apprehended 107 individuals attempting to cross the borders illegally in the past week while preventing 2,695 others.
In response to questions about the PKK/YPG terrorist group using civilians as human shields in the Tishrin Dam area of northern Syria, ministry sources separately said that they are closely monitoring the ongoing clashes between the Syrian National Army (SNA) and the PKK/YPG in the region.
"The terrorist group is forcibly bringing civilians to the conflict zones to deceive the international community with disinformation, falsely claiming that attacks are being carried out against civilians," the sources said.
"The terrorist organization will not be allowed to use humanitarian infrastructure facilities, disaster prevention efforts or innocent civilians as bargaining chips," they added.
Aktürk assured Türkiye would continue supporting Syria for the facilitation of permanent peace and cooperate with the new Syrian administration against terrorism and bolster the country’s defense and security capacity.
At home, the Turkish government has launched what has been dubbed the “terror-free initiative” to put a definitive end to the PKK’s campaign of violence.
The tentative push to end 40 years of PKK terrorism in Türkiye began in October when Erdoğan’s close ally Devlet Bahçeli, a hardline politician who had previously strongly opposed any concessions to the PKK, suggested jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan could be granted parole if he renounced violence and disbanded the PKK.
Erdoğan has since endorsed Bahçeli's stance and called the move a “historic window of opportunity.”
In a message relayed by his nephew in December, Öcalan said he has the power to end the conflict if the conditions are right.
On Wednesday, Erdoğan warned of a fresh offensive against the PKK if the terrorist group disregards any potential call from Öcalan to lay down arms.
The initiative has spurred mixed reactions across the board, but two families, Aykut and Boz, who lost many relatives to a notorious massacre by the PKK in southeastern Türkiye two decades ago, have thrown their support behind it.
The PKK is responsible for the killings of thousands since the 1980s. Among them are 28 people slaughtered in the village of Ikiyaka in the southeastern province of Hakkari, which was a hotbed of terrorist activity for years.
The village, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Yüksekova district of the province, paid a hefty price for opposing the terrorist group.
Descending on the village on Nov. 24, 1989, terrorists rounded up members of families who refused to aid terrorists who previously visited the village and sought to recruit members.
The village was home to several people serving as voluntary guards against terrorists. Going door to door, a large group of PKK members randomly fired on civilians while separately rounding up a group of men for execution. As they were leaving, they set houses on fire.
Halil Aykut, who lost 16 members of his family in Ikiyaka 36 years ago, told Anadolu Agency (AA) following their meeting with Erdoğan that they conveyed their support for the terror-free initiative and thanked him for inviting them.
“We certainly want terrorism to end as soon as possible. Our only expectation is that victims and their families are remembered. We lost a baby who was lying in his cradle when he was killed. Terrorists, over the years, killed soldiers and police officers. May Allah punish them for what they’ve done,” he said.
