9 suspects tied to PKK caught in 3 cities

TURKISH police have captured nine suspects for their alleged role in terrorist group PKK’s “ideological field” branch in Istanbul and two other cities, local media said yesterday.

The suspects are charged by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for their work under the so-called press committee of KCK, an umbrella body founded to organize and coordinate PKK affiliates in Türkiye.

Police caught the suspects in simultaneous raids across Istanbul, the capital of Ankara and in the southeastern Şanlıurfa province. They seized digital materials and banned publications.

The suspects have since been handed to police for processing.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, as well as the United States and the European Union. It operates in northern Syria through its local offshoot, the YPG, which has occupied a chunk of the country’s northeast since 2015 with military support from the U.S.

Terrorists from PKK and other groups, such as its Syrian wing, the YPG, and Daesh, rely on a network of members and supporters in Türkiye. In response, Ankara has been conducting pinpoint operations and freezing assets to eliminate the terrorist groups at their roots.

Turkish airstrikes also target PKK/YPG hideouts in northern Iraq and Syria. Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq, including a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil.

Türkiye has over the past 25 years operated several dozen military bases in northern Iraq in its war against the PKK, as well as the war against Daesh, which controlled much of the area, in 2014 and 2015, when Ankara was an ally in the U.S.-led antiDaesh campaign.

Ankara launched Operation ClawLock in April 2022, the latest in the string of cross-border “Claw” offensives kicked off in 2019, to demolish terrorist lairs across Metina, Avashin-Basyan, Zap and Gara districts.

In Syria, Türkiye conducted a trio of successful counterterrorism operations to both prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield in 2016, Olive Branch in 2018 and Peace Spring in 2019.

Similarly, yesterday, Turkish jets struck PKK/YPG targets that opened fire in the Operation Euphrates Shield region, eliminating four terrorists, the Defense Ministry said.