Turkey neutralizes senior female YPG/PKK terrorist

ANKARA

Turkey last fall neutralized a senior female YPG/PKK terrorist in a joint operation by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and the Turkish Armed Forces, security sources announced on Wednesday.

Esme Erat, codenamed Delal Nurhak, a senior terrorist in the YPG/PKK’s female branch, the PAJK, and her driver, codenamed Zilan Kobani, were neutralized in an operation late last September in northern Iraq's Qandil region, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" in their statements to imply that the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.

Erat was born in 1965, and joined the PKK terror group in 1989 in the countryside of Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province.

Erat moved to Syria in 1993 and got political and military training from Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK terror group's ringleader, and soon was a core member of the terrorist PKK women's movement.

She became the terrorist in charge of PAJK coordination in 2014-2015, and in 2018 became a top PAJK coordinator in Qandil, the terrorist YPG/PKK’s headquarters.

PKK terrorists often use northern Iraq to plan cross-border terrorist attacks in Turkey.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the terrorist PKK's Syrian branch.

* Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev