Ali Yerlikaya, the newly appointed interior minister of Türkiye, assessed his first 90 days in office at a news conference on Wednesday in the capital Ankara. Yerlikaya touched upon terrorism, the main security threat for the country, and shared a dire number of attempted terrorist attacks. He said law enforcement’s work prevented terrorists from carrying out 44 attacks, including 37 involving explosives. He added that they had carried out nearly 43,500 operations in the past 90 days, and 214 terrorists from PKK were “neutralized,” using a blanket term referring to suspects captured dead or alive. He said 27 among them were apprehended dead, 187 were captured alive, and 40 among them surrendered.
Türkiye was once embattled with the grave threat of terrorism by the PKK, as well as Daesh, along with the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which carried out the deadly 2016 coup attempt, and other smaller far-left groups. The PKK remains active in the country, although its terrorist attacks have been sizeably reduced in the past few years. Its last major attack was in Istanbul’s Istiklal Street, carried out by a member of the terrorist group’s Syria wing known as the YPG. Daesh, which was behind the bloodiest terrorist attacks in the country, including one that killed hundreds at a major train station in the capital, has been unable to carry out any more major attacks in recent years.
Yerlikaya said counterterrorism always topped the agenda and that they were working around the clock for the safety of the country. He reiterated that PKK terrorism, dating back to the 1980s, has almost been eliminated during the governments of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
“Our vision is to eradicate terrorism completely. We don’t want to have to shut down even a single residence because of terrorism,” referring to abandoned neighborhoods, especially in the southeast where the terrorism drove out locals.
The minister emphasized that their approach was “preventive” and the "basic strategy was maintaining an institutionalized counterterrorism work.”
“The Interior Ministry works perfectly with the Ministry of Defense, which pursues counterterrorism efforts on the borders and beyond, and with National Intelligence Organization (MIT), which works on intelligence and precision operations,” he said.
He noted that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) they operated were instrumental in the counterterrorism operations. The minister also said that most operations against the terrorist group were in rural areas, while they conducted 818 operations in the cities.
Most operations targeted the PKK. Yerlikaya said they also conducted 1,294 operations against FETÖ and detained 1,955 suspects. In 265 operations against Daesh, 42 terrorists were “neutralized,” while 443 suspects were arrested.
Yerlikaya also stressed that the number of new recruits for terrorist groups “almost dropped to zero.” He noted that a protest by the “Diyarbakır Mothers” marked its fifth year this month, and in the past 90 days, four more terrorists from the PKK had turned themselves in, and the number of those reunited with their families has reached 46.
Intimidating the local population for years and occasionally killing those opposing their presence, the PKK terrorist group found little resistance for decades in southeastern Türkiye, where it drew in members. But a group of brave women changed this perception on Sept. 3, 2019. The “Diyarbakır Mothers,” named after the southeastern province where they stage their protest, took action against the PKK through a quiet demonstration.
The mothers (who were later joined by fathers and siblings) launched their sit-in strike to demand the PKK return their children, including minors they abducted and tricked into joining. They chose the Diyarbakır offices of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) as the location of their protest as the party is accused of close links with the terrorist group. Indeed, most of their children were persuaded by HDP officials to join the PKK or were brainwashed in events organized by the political party. As prosecutors say in a trial seeking a ban on the HDP, the party acted as a recruitment office for the PKK.
