ADDS MORE REMARKS FROM TURKISH PRESIDENT
By Diyar Guldogan
ANKARA (AA) – Türkiye is committed to destroy the terrorist group PKK until its last terrorist is neutralized, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.
"The terrorist organization, which has suffered great losses in operations Türkiye carried out along its southern borders, showed its dirty face by shedding the blood of innocents with its mortar attacks on civilian settlements on our borders," said Erdogan, referring to cross-border terror attacks last week from YPG/PKK terrorists in Syria into southern Türkiye.
"We repeat once again our commitment to destroy the terrorist group that murdered a 5-year-old boy and a 22-year-old teacher in the attack in Gaziantep2s (border) district of Karkamis, until its last militant is neutralized,” Erdogan said after a Cabinet meeting in the capital Ankara.
Erdogan said Türkiye's determination to establish a 30-kilometer-deep (18.6-mile) security strip next to its borders continues, something it previously sought to do with US and Russian cooperation on its southern border. Turkish officials have complained that Washington and Moscow failed to uphold their ends of the deal.
"We do not need to get permission from anyone while taking steps concerning the security of our homeland and our people, and we will not be held accountable to anyone," Erdogan added.
He stressed that no one will be able to force Türkiye to any position against its own interests in political, diplomatic, economic, and military terms through "empty threats."
The president also said no one should be disturbed by Türkiye's military operations aimed at expanding the circle of security and peace.
"We do not have to tolerate the hypocrisy of those who support registered terrorist groups with naming-change games," Erdogan said.
Ankara has long claimed that terrorism has no religion, language, race, nationality, and it is not possible to fight a terrorist group by supporting another terrorist group.
Recently, Türkiye launched Operation Claw-Sword in northern areas of Iraq and Syria, a cross-border aerial campaign against the terror group PKK, which has illegal hideouts across the Iraqi and Syrian borders where they plan and sometimes execute attacks on Turkish soil.
After the air operation was launched on Nov. 20, Erdogan also signaled a ground operation into northern Iraq and northern Syria to eliminate the terror threat.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the European Union and the US, and is responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the terrorist PKK's Syrian branch.