'Turkey could launch op against PKK terror HQ'

By Faruk Zorlu

ANKARA

Turkey's deputy prime minister on Monday said Turkey reserves the right to launch an operation where there is a threat to Turkey, mentioning the top base for the PKK terrorist group.

Speaking to reporters after a Cabinet meeting in Ankara, Bekir Bozdag said about a possible military operation on Mt. Qandil, Iraq, the PKK’s headquarters: “Turkey could enter Qandil, anything could happen.”

“Where there is a terrorist threat to Turkey, there is a target for Turkey. Both terrorists and all the resources of terrorism are the targets for Turkey,” he added.

Airstrikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq, where the terror group has its main base in the Mt. Qandil region, near the Iranian border, have been carried out regularly since July 2015, when the PKK resumed its armed campaign.

In its 30-year-plus terrorist campaign against Turkey, the PKK has been responsible for some 40,000 deaths.

Manbij, fugitive soldiers in Greece

About the withdrawal of YPG/PKK terrorists from the northern Syrian city of Manbij, Bozdag said a roadmap on Manbij that ensures its security and stability would be implemented under a timetable.

Visiting Washington on Monday, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about such a roadmap.

“We hope that the U.S., as an ally, will stand with Turkey,” said Bozdag.

This January Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, northern Syria to clear terrorist groups from the area. After liberating the city of Afrin, Ankara said it might also extend its operation further east to Manbij, unless the PYD/PKK terrorist group leaves the strategic city.

However, U.S. military support for the terrorist PYD/PKK in Manbij has strained ties between Ankara and Washington, and has led to fears of military clashes between the two NATO allies, since there are roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in the city.

On eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece, accused of involvement in the 2016 defeated coup by the Fetullah Terrorist Group (FETO), Bozdag decried Greece’s failure to return them to Turkey it has “provided them various opportunities and protections.”

“No matter what they do, it is our duty to find these soldiers’ links to FETO and bring them back to Turkey regardless of wherever they go,” he added.

In January, the Greek Supreme Court ruled against extraditing the former soldiers -- a move Turkey called "politically motivated".

Turkey has repeatedly called for the extradition of the suspected coup-plotters, including during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's official visit to Greece last December.

The soldiers arrived in Greece’s Thrace region aboard a stolen military helicopter hours after the defeated coup of July 15, 2016.