Turkey's effective anti-PKK operations

ANKARA

The anti-terror operations currently being carried out in Turkey are the most effective in 30 years, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Monday.

In a live interview with Show TV, Davutoglu said the Turkish Air Force jets had “razed to the ground 452 PKK objectives” in northern Iraq.

He credited the armed forces’ success on them being “prepared for any case.”

Referring to the “solution process” that saw Turkey negotiate with the terrorist organization PKK for an end to the 30-year Kurdish conflict, Davutoglu said it could have continued if the PKK leadership had called for its followers to lay down their arms earlier this year.

“They lost the last chance in March,” he said.

He added: “Now the places surrounding the cities will be cleansed [of PKK]. Our instruction is very clear and there is no going back from that.”

The solution process, officially initiated in early 2013, saw a pause in military operations against the PKK in northern Iraq.

Davutoglu said Turkey was aware of intelligence agencies operating in northern Iraq and their aims.

Responding to comments from a Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) minister in the interim government that preventing the party from entering parliament when the Nov. 1 election is held “paves the way for Turkey’s division”, Davutoglu said: “Turkey’s division has nothing to do with the threshold, Turkey is indivisible. No one can divide Turkey.”

The HDP passed the 10 percent threshold in the previous election and succeeded in entering the parliament for the first time.