One-hundred-sixty-five terrorists in total including two from the blue category, two from the orange category and 13 from the grey category of the most wanted list of the Ministry of Interior were killed in counterterrorism operations, Interior Ministry Deputy Minister İsmail Çataklı said on Friday, revealing the steps the country is taking and their success against terrorism.
The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) were successful in numerous operations carried out in July and eliminated 17 high-ranking terrorists. In the operation at Mount Tendürek on July 28, one of the terrorists killed, Uğur Arslan, code named Agir, was in the orange category of the Interior Ministry's wanted list. He was sought with a bounty of TL 600,000 on his head. Another terrorist, Meryem Aksu, was on Turkey's most-wanted list. Aksu, code named Sorhin Eruh, was neutralized in a July 16 operation carried out by provincial gendarmerie forces in the rural areas of Kulp district. The orange-listed Aksu had a TL 600,000 bounty on her head. In addition, two listed in the blue category, Taylan Kutlar, code named Şeydo, and Hülya Kül, code named Şevin, who had bounties of TL 1.5 million were also killed.
The Interior Ministry's wanted list is divided into five color-coded categories, with red marking the most wanted, followed by blue, green, orange and gray, depending on the sensitivity of their criminal activity.
Çataklı also underlined that a high amount of money and a great number of people were designated to tackle the problems, he said that the fact that no internal political problems arose during this period, stems from the understanding and self-sacrifice of the Turkish people. "I hope that we will get rid of ‘chronic' problems such as terrorism or traffic soon."
It was stated also that within the scope of internal security operations of the ministry, 11,646 operations were carried out in rural areas, three of which were large-scale and 35 medium-scale operations. In the cities, on the other side, 1,409 operations were undertaken. "The month of July was fruitful in terms of eliminating ‘high-ranking' terrorists," Çataklı added. Seventy-four of these terrorists were captured dead, 33 alive, 58 surrendered voluntarily while 146 of them were members of the PKK, 17 of Daesh and two of extreme-left terrorist organizations.
At least 408 terrorists have surrendered since 2017 through persuasion, the Interior Ministry revealed Monday. Of them, 105 surrendered in 2017, 165 in 2018 and 138 surrendered this year, indicating that the successful operations carried out by the Turkish security forces have caused the terrorist organization to disintegrate. Furthermore, he announced that 2,073 Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), PKK's Syrian affiliate the People's Protection Units (YPG)-related, 635 PKK-related, 187 Daesh-related and 45 related to extreme-left terrorist organizations.