At a press briefing on Thursday, Defense Ministry press adviser Admiral Zeki Aktürk said Türkiye neutralized 2,032 PKK terrorists inside the country, in Iraq and Syria, including 56 in the last week.
"Neutralized" is a term used to describe terrorists captured dead or alive.
Aktürk also noted that 119 terrorists turned themselves in since January, including six PKK members who fled shelters in northern Iraq.
“Operations in Türkiye and beyond the borders dealt a heavy blow to terrorist groups like the PKK, the YPG, Daesh and FETÖ,” he highlighted.
The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, while the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) is a shadowy group that infiltrated state and public institutions before orchestrating the defeated 2016 coup attempt in Türkiye.
Aktürk said airstrikes destroyed a total of 16 caves, bunkers and hideouts used by terrorists in northern Iraqi districts Gara, Metina, Khakurk and Qandil where Ankara has been conducting Operation Claw-Lock since last April.
It was preceded by two operations – Claw-Tiger and Claw-Eagle – launched in 2020 to root out terrorists hiding in northern Iraq and plotting cross-border attacks in Türkiye.
In the same region, Turkish forces confiscated a large cache of munitions, explosives, guns and materials.
In Syria, Aktürk said, the Turkish military responded to a total of 467 attempts to attack and harass its forces in 2023.
“Some 27 PKK/YPG terrorists have been eliminated in the region in the past week, totaling 1,435 terrorists in 2023,” the admiral added.
On border security, Aktürk informed authorities intercepted 12,889 people since Jan. 1, including 2,367 in the past week, before they infiltrated into Türkiye. Two among them were terrorists of the PKK and FETÖ.
Turkish border patrol brought in 583 terrorists attempting to cross the border, Aktürk added.
The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, Britain and the European Union – is responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye during an almost four-decadelong campaign of terror.
Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq.
Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there, and it regularly launches operations against the PKK, which operates a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil province, although the area is under de jure control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
