Turkey Announces More Anti-PKK Operations in Country's Southeast

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th April, 2021) Turkey is launching new phases of the Eren series of domestic operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the Sirnak and Hakkari provinces, the Ministry of Interior said on Thursday.

Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist organization.

"In parallel with the Pence-Simsek and Pence-Yildirim counterterrorist operations in northern Iraq under the coordination of our ministry, the Eren Cudi-Besta and Eren Kazan-Ogul domestic operations have been launched in order to neutralize the terrorists and remove separatist terrorist groups from the country's agenda, as well as to prevent the transit of terrorists between the so-called shelter areas," the ministry said.

The new operations involve some 5,280 security personnel, according to the statement.

Ankara named the Eren series of anti-PKK raids after Eren Bulbul, a 15-year-old boy who was killed by the militia in 2017. The operations began this January and have already left 22 PKK fighters killed and 75 others taken prisoner, in addition to 666 destroyed infrastructure units, according to the ministry.