Turkey is closer than ever to fully securing its borders against the PKK terrorist threat, as Turkish security forces continue to carry out operations targeting the terrorist group in northern Iraq, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Tuesday.
Noting that Operation Claw-Lock continues as planned, Akar said the operation will lock the country's borders, giving Turkey full control over them in the face of terrorist threats.
The defense minister continued by highlighting that the Turkish military's sole target is the PKK terrorists.
“Kurds and Turks are siblings. We’ve shared our bread and water for centuries and the most explicit proof of this is our war graves, where the Turks, Kurds and Arabs lie together,” Akar said, adding that Turkey will continue to fight terrorists with determination.
The defense minister was at the command center in the Çukurca district in Hakkari province and spent the night there, holding meetings with Chief of Staff Gen. Yaşar Güler, Land Forces Command Cmdr. Gen. Musa Avsever and Air Forces Command Cmdr. Gen. Hasan Küçükakyüz.
Akar also said the Turkish military took revenge for the deaths of five soldiers by encircling the perpetrators inside their caves and killing them.
Some 100 PKK terrorists have been killed since the launch of Operation Claw-Lock, Akar said.
Last month, the Turkish military launched the new ground and air counterterrorism operation against the PKK terrorists in northern Iraq’s Metina, Zap and Avashin-Basyan regions. The ongoing operation was based on four goals, including the destruction of camps hosting PKK terrorists near Turkey’s borders, taking full control over border entries into Turkey and preventing terrorist infiltration, cutting off the terrorists’ connections with the local people and destroying Qandil by closing all passageways to the terrorist headquarters.
The military is planning to advance 50 to 60 kilometers (31 to 37 miles) into northern Iraq to clear the area of PKK terrorists as part of the operation.
The military, which aims to completely destroy the terrorist group’s headquarters in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, is expected to close all passageways to Qandil to cut off terrorists’ access.
The Qandil area has frequently been hit by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in the last decades, yet a ground operation had not been launched in recent years.
Qandil became the PKK's main headquarters in the 1990s after it used the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon as training grounds for many years.
The first extensive operation against the PKK was carried out in May 1983, when 5,000 Turkish soldiers crossed the Iraq border and advanced 5 kilometers. After a land operation on the Qandil Mountains to destroy PKK hideouts, they retreated.
In the mid-1990s, the operations intensified due to increased PKK attacks and infiltration attempts near border towns that cost hundreds of Turkish soldiers' lives.
In May 1995, the Turkish army launched Operation Steel with the participation of 35,000 personnel. The operation was followed by Operation Claw, which was launched on May 27, 2019, to entirely eliminate the presence of the terrorist organization in northern Iraq.
Before launching Operation Claw-Lock, Turkish officials informed Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials about the plans. On April 15, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and talked about the planned operation.
