An end to entry bans to plateaus in southeastern Turkey is good news for livestock breeders in the region where many depend on livestock for a living.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced over the weekend that the ban, in place since 2015, will be lifted in spring 2018.

The ban came amid security concerns as the PKK terrorist group renewed its campaign against the Turkish state in the mountainous region.

The group concentrates its attacks in the southeast where it also draws recruits. Militants had long used plateaus and rugged terrain to hide from security forces hunting them down. Occasionally, they kidnap or kill locals and loot their belongings.

In the two years of counterterrorism operations, authorities have largely cleared the region of the PKK's presence, although operations continue.

Ali Kaysadu, head of a union of livestock breeders in Bingöl province, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the ban is a major obstacle to their trade. "We have to take animals to cooler places in April and May or their growth is stunted," he said. Kaysadu said they were excited when they heard Erdoğan's remarks during a rally in a southeastern city over the weekend. "This will be a spring to celebrate for us," he said.

Musa Yeşiltaş, who heads an agricultural cooperative in the region, said the decision is especially for the benefit of the nomadic community in the region, which spends the spring in the plateaus, far from the arid climate of villages at lower altitudes.

Mahmut Morkoyun, a livestock breeder, said he had to sell many of his animals because of the ban and most people he knew gave up raising animals.

"This will help the growth of sector again," he told reporters.

Mehmet Ali Şengöz, who serves as chairman of a union of sheep and goat breeders, said the region had been at the heart of animal husbandry in Turkey and had potential to meet the meat demand of the country. "Once the ban is lifted, we will supply the demand again," Şengöz said.