The Turkish military has launched the sixth stage of Operation Kiran in the east of the country, targeting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara designates as a terrorist organization, the Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2019) The Turkish military has launched the sixth stage of Operation Kiran in the east of the country, targeting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara designates as a terrorist organization, the Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday.
The statement detailed the involvement of 2,360 personnel organized into 157 operational teams to prevent what it called the "separatist, terrorist organization" from taking up winter refuge in the predominantly Kurdish east of the country.
The operation focuses on the provinces of Van, Hirrak and Sirnak in the country's south and east bordering with Iran, Iraq and Syria. It comes after five previous phases of the operation swept central areas of the country. The three provinces are the most diverse and non-Turkish areas of the country with plenty Kurdish, Assyrian and Arab population points.
The interior ministry said that it aims at the elimination of terrorism in the country with determination. It is not clear whether this Kiran-6 will be the last phase of the operation.
The Turkish government has been fighting the PKK, which seeks to establish a Kurdish autonomy in Turkey, since the early 1980s. The PKK and Ankara agreed on a ceasefire in 2013, but it collapsed just two years later after several terror attacks allegedly committed by PKK militants.
Turkish security forces carry out regular raids against the PKK across the country and conduct airstrikes that target the group in northern Iraq.
