By Yunus Okur
ERZURUM, Turkey (AA) – Turkish security forces neutralized a total of 144 YPG/PKK terrorists both in Turkey and abroad last month, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency.
Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" in their statements to imply that the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.
The counter-terrorism operations were jointly carried out by the country's National Intelligence Organization (MIT), Turkish Armed Forces, gendarmerie and police forces in eastern and southeastern Turkey, targeting terrorist bases and weapons depots.
Some 40 suspects were remanded in custody among 115 arrested suspects, including two mayors in eastern and southeastern Turkey belonging to the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), in operation against the YPG/PKK.
Seven Turkish security personnel were martyred during the month, while four were injured. Eight civilians were also killed and 14 injured in terrorist attacks.
– Terrorists take hard hit
So-called senior figures of the terror group were also neutralized in eastern, southern, and southeastern Turkey amid security operations.
Security forces also neutralized two terrorists who martyred Turkish soldiers Ercan Sanca, Mehmet Sait Baris and Gungor Dolunay in terror attacks in Turkey's southeastern Hakkari province.
One terrorist, codenamed Azad, who was also the so-called senior figure in the southeastern district of Savur, Mardin, was neutralized in the Artuklu district of the same province on Sept. 10.
– Heavy blow to senior YPG/PKK terrorists
Wanted terrorist Bayram Baskala was also neutralized in an operation by Turkish gendarmerie in eastern province of Van on Sept. 14.
Baskala was found to be the perpetrator of several terror attacks in which one gendarmerie and two village guards were martyred.
Devrim Akbay, also on government's wanted list, was one of two terrorists neutralized during an operation in the eastern Bitlis province on Sept. 17.
Osman Ekinci — codenamed "Berhem" — was one of three terrorists neutralized in an operation on Sept. 29 and was responsible for a car-bomb attack on the vehicle of a local mayor in the southeastern Siirt province.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU — has been responsible for the death of some 40,000 people, including those of women, children and infants.
The YPG/PKK and PYD/PKK are Syrian branches of the terrorist PKK and the focus of Turkey's successful counter-terrorist Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria, near the border with Turkey.
* Writing by Davut Demircan
