PKK terrorists confess to bringing weapons to west during reconciliation process

Military sources have previously indicated that the reconciliation process will not be revived for at least a year or two, although the government would rather take steps to embrace locals in the east and southeast including rebuilding damaged areas as part of its new government strategy. Three senior members of the PKK terrorist organization who were recently captured have confessed that while the government was holding talks in the framework of the reconciliation process, the PKK buried heavy weaponry and explosives in 14 Turkish provinces.

According to information obtained by Turkish media outlets, the captured PKK terrorists said that the terrorist organization had deployed, from abroad, 287 specially trained terrorists within Turkey. The nearly two-year-long reconciliation process and accompanying ceasefire between the state and the PKK collapsed in July 2015 after the PKK killed two police officers, leading to renewed fighting in a war that has stretched on for more than 30 years and led to the deaths of around 40,000 people. Turkish security forces have begun broad counter-terrorism operations throughout eastern and southeastern Turkey, focusing on clearing cities of PKK terrorists, filling in trenches, removing barricades and destroying thousands of improvised explosives.

The arrested senior PKK terrorists further said that those 287 specially trained terrorists who were sent to Turkey conducted surveillance, reconnaissance and provided weaponry and explosives training to PKK members. As the PKK's strategy of deploying these specially trained terrorists to the western provinces of Turkey was indicated as part of their strategy to move combat from rural to urban areas, the latest reports obtained from PKK terrorists underlined that the terrorist organization had used the reconciliation process as an opportunity to mobilize attacks in urban areas. It was revealed that heavy weaponry along with explosives was buried by the PKK terrorist organization in 14 provinces of Turkey, including Ankara, Istanbul, İzmir and Antalya. In 2015, 100 kg of explosives were found in the Polatlı district of Ankara, which were said to be more dangerous than the C-4 explosive. The report, conducted in accordance with the testimony of captured PKK terrorists, revealed that the PKK recruited more than 6,000 people, mainly secondary school and university students, shortly after the declaration of a ceasefire in 2012.