Erdoğan vows to continue fight against terrorism

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed to keep fighting terrorism in the coming days, stating that Turkey will need more commandoes in its special forces for future operations.

“Terror will be the biggest struggle in the following days. We will end terror by destroying it so that peace prevails in the country. We will not let anyone to look in a hostile way at our country,” Erdoğan said on June 29 at the opening ceremony of a mosque in the Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy in Ankara.

At the ceremony, Erdoğan said Turkey will need “commandoes” in the forthcoming days.

“We have an urgent and growing need for them [commandoes]. The more we raise the number of commandos in the special forces, the more successful we will be in the fight against terror,” he said.

Referring to Turkey’s cross-border operations in Syrian cities, Erdoğan told the academy members “we have seen your success in Jarablus and Afrin.”

“Operation Olive Branch, launched in January 2018 into Syria’s northern province of Afrin, is still ongoing as the Turkish Army Forces and Free Syrian Army Forces continue their search operations after the city was taken under control on March 18,” the Turkish army said in an official statement on June 29.

“The number of terrorists that have been neutralized since the beginning of the operation is 4,513,” read the statement. The army uses the word “neutralized” to indicate militants in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.

Some 54 of our comrades in arm were killed and 234 were wounded,” it read.

Meanwhile, the Turkish army also declared that with military operations carried out in Turkey’s southeastern provinces of Şırnak, Hakkari, Kahramanmaraş, Diyarbakır, Ağrı and Bitlis and northern Iraqi regions, 56 PKK members were either captured or killed. 

The army also announced that four Turkey’s soldiers were killed and six soldiers were wounded in the operations.

“Some 22 explosives and seven gun emplacements and shelters were destroyed,” read the statement.