A joint operation by Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and police netted a woman active in the PKK terrorist group in Australia, security sources said on Saturday.
The terrorist, identified as Çiğdem Aslan, who was found to have actively participated in the actions and activities carried out on behalf of the PKK in Australia, had been followed by MIT for a long time. It was learned that Aslan, who was in contact with high-level members of the terror group, was going to Australia from Istanbul Airport where she was nabbed.
She was sent to prison by a judge. The 51-year-old Aslan had an Australian passport under the name of Lenna Aslan when she was apprehended. Sources said she was serving as co-chair of a PKK-linked association in Australia and was active in events organized by a Melbourne-based center serving as a mouthpiece of the terrorist group. She was involved in rallies in Australia to protest Türkiye's cross-border counterterrorism operations against the PKK and was in contact with a high-ranking figure of PKK.
In its 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Türkiye, the U.S., and the EU has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children, infants and the elderly.
On Sunday, the Ministry of National Defense announced that a Turkish soldier was killed by the PKK terrorists in Iraq. The ministry said Pvt. Maşallah Abakay, 23, was "martyred" during an attempt by terrorists to infiltrate into an area of operation of the Turkish army. The army is engaged in Operation Claw-Lock in Iraq's north where the PKK has hideouts.
The Turkish military eliminated at least 2,000 PKK/YPG terrorists in northern Iraq and Syria since Jan. 1, the Defense Ministry said last Thursday. The YPG refers to the Syrian wing of the PKK.
"Fifty terrorists were neutralized in the past week. The total number of terrorists neutralized in northern Iraq and Syria since Jan. 1 has thus reached 2,013, with 1,017 in Iraq and 996 in northern Syria,” Defense Ministry Spokesperson Rear Adm. Zeki Aktürk told a weekly news conference in the capital Ankara.
In northern Syria, YPG/PKK terrorists threaten the Turkish border while trying to harass and attack local Syrians and Turkish troops promoting stability in a region once dominated by terrorist groups, due to a power vacuum in conflict-torn Syria. Ankara has ramped up its cross-border operations in recent months against the PKK and YPG. The aim is to rid the region of PKK/YPG, close the security loop along the Turkish border, and sever the ties between the group’s leaders in Iraq’s Qandil region and Syria. Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq, including a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil.
Türkiye has, over the past 25 years, operated several dozen military bases in northern Iraq in its war against the PKK and has been conducting airstrikes as part of its “Claw” operations since 2022 to demolish terrorist lairs and prevent the formation of a terrorist corridor along its borders.
