PKK member surrenders to Türkiye: Ministry

ANKARA

A member of the terrorist organization PKK surrendered to the Turkish security forces, the Interior Ministry has announced.

A PKK member who escaped from the terrorist organization surrendered to the security forces as a result of persuasion efforts carried out by police and gendarmerie.

The Interior Ministry stated that the PKK member joined the terrorist organization in 2018 and participated in the activities on behalf of the organization in Syria.

Thus, the number of PKK members who surrendered to Türkiye by persuasion work increased to 102 in 2022.

In Türkiye, offenders linked to terrorist groups who surrender are eligible for a possible sentence reduction under a repentance law.

Meanwhile, the provincial Police Department stated that the efforts to decipher the structure and members of terrorist organizations and to terminate their activities are ongoing in the eastern province of Van.

Within the scope of the operations organized on Oct. 10 - 16, eight suspects were identified to be a member of FETÖ, while another three PKK suspects were detained.

During its more than 35-year terror campaign, the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S. and the European Union, has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

Türkiye launched successful anti-terror operations to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable peaceful settlement in the border regions.

The FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Gülen, orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in which 251 people were killed and 2,734 were wounded.

Until today, some 332,000 people with ties to FETÖ have been detained, and some 19,000 are serving jail terms, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said in a symposium on July 5.