Turkey, Iran conduct joint operation against PKK: Minister

ANKARA 

Around 600 Turkish and Iranian forces recently carried out a joint operation against the illegal PKK on Turkey’s eastern border, the country’s interior minister has said.

“We completed an operation in coordination [with Iran] that we had discussed for a long time in Iğdır, Hakkari, Van and Ağrı provinces,” Süleyman Soylu said on March 25, adding the operation was conducted between March 18 and 23.

The two sides said they are determined to continue carrying out such joint counter-terrorism operations.

Last week, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Muhterem İnce and his Iranian counterpart Hussein Zulfiqari said they were pleased to have reached an agreement on launching a simultaneous operation against terror groups that threaten the security of both countries, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.

Meanwhile, more than 160 terrorists, all top terror group members, were killed last year in Turkey, Soylu has said.

Among them were 13 terrorists who were inscribed on the red category of the Interior Ministry’s wanted list, Süleyman Soylu told an NGO meeting in Istanbul on March 26.

The wanted list is divided into five color-coded categories, with red as the most wanted, followed by blue, green, orange and grey.

Soylu said there is not any top terror group member in Turkey.

Earlier in March, Soylu said there were fewer than 700 terrorists in Turkey.