Turkish intelligence eliminated Özgür Şoreş, the Türkiye officer of terrorist group PKK/KCK-YPS, codenamed Özgür Alparslan, with an operation in northern Iraq, security sources said Saturday.
Şoreş, responsible for the terrorist group's activities in Türkiye since 2019, was also the founder of Children of Fire initiative responsible for numerous forest fires and sabotages in Türkiye, and had personally given the order for the forest fires that started in Antalya's Manavgat on July 28, 2021 and caused the destruction of over 150,000 hectares of forest fields across Muğla, Mersin and Hatay.
National Intelligence Agency (MIT) had been following Şoreş in Iraq where he received an order from Murat Karayılan, the PKK's de-facto leader, and was in search of a new terror attack in Türkiye. MIT killed him alongside a group of terrorists he was trying to get into Türkiye for the attack.
Operating as the Türkiye officer of PKK/KCK-YPS, Şoreş joined the rural staff of the organization in 2008, after serving as the youth spokesperson for the PKK/KCK terrorist organization in Istanbul between 2006 and 2008. He moved to Iraq in 2008.
As of 2015, he was responsible for the transfer of weapons, ammunition and bomb assemblies to the members of the organization via Syria and also organized the YPS actions in the metropolises.
After 2019, he became the PKK/KCK-YPS Türkiye Officer. He personally followed the forest fires in Mersin and Hatay in 2021. As of 2022, he passed through the Iraq's Gare region and led the Children of Fire initiative from there.
Şoreş was in the green category on the wanted list for terrorism.
The Children of Fire initiative founded by Şoreş has been responsible for sabotages and forest fires in Türkiye for almost four decades, taking their directives from the PKK terrorist group.
The group has turned to "environmental terrorism" much more frequently in recent years after focusing on such acts of attacks and sabotages in 1990s and 2000s from time to time, according to a report by Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA).
The report, analyzing acts of "environmental terrorism" and PKK's forest fire sabotages, details how the terrorist organization has turned to forest fires to hurt Türkiye's economy as it actively tried to scare away tourists while also trying to shift the blame onto the Turkish government. The forest fires started by PKK have been largely ignored by the international media, notes the report.
The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, the United Kingdom 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 and Türkiye has been conducting military operations in northern Iraq since 2019, with both ground and air forces, to battle the organization.
In the last few years, the operations intensifying in northern Iraq have demolished terrorist lairs in Metina, Avashin-Basyan, Zap and Gara. After eradicating the group's influence in these regions, Türkiye also aims to clear Qandil, Sinjar and Makhmour.
Its military involvement in northern Iraq dates back over two decades, separately from its operations against the PKK, included also the war against the Daesh terrorist group, which controlled much of the area, in 2014 and 2015, when Ankara was an ally in the U.S.-led anti-Daesh campaign.
