Ali Yerlikaya, a veteran bureaucrat who was Istanbul's governor before he took the post of interior minister in June, has a busy schedule. The fight against terrorism dominates his agenda as Türkiye faces threats from multiple terrorist groups, from PKK to Daesh. Yerlikaya met journalists in Istanbul on Thursday to explain the work of his ministry since he assumed the duty.

The minister stated that their operations against the PKK in the past 120 days helped "neutralize" 309 terrorists in cities and rural areas. He said 38 were killed, 208 others were captured alive, and another four were captured injured. He also said 59 terrorists surrendered. He noted that 1,810 suspects were detained in operations, while 433 were remanded in custody and 336 others were slapped with judiciary control, a term used to describe suspects subject to travel bans.

Terrorism has always been top on the agenda of the Turkish government, but the Oct. 1 terrorist attack in the capital Ankara targeting the headquarters of the Turkish National Police was followed by massive counterterrorism operations across Türkiye, as well as Iraq and Syria, where the PKK has hideouts and the backing of the United States. The Interior Ministry oversees the domestic fight against the PKK and other terrorist groups, while the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) carries out airstrikes against the terrorist group in Türkiye's southern neighbors.

Yerlikaya echoed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's earlier remarks about the Ankara attack, which he described as something "that shows the terrorist group is in death's throes."

"The desperation they are in is reflected in this ugly face of terrorism. Operation Heroes, which we launched immediately after the attempted attack, showed that our relentless fight against terrorists all across our country continues uninterruptedly and we will continue through this path. The Interior Ministry works here inside the country, the Defense Ministry works on the borders and beyond and the National Intelligence Organization carries out intelligence activities and precision strikes – and we are all working in perfect harmony," Yerlikaya said.

The minister highlighted that two terrorists involved in the Oct. 1 attack arrived from Syria. Answering a question, he said they likely flew to Türkiye through a "paramotor," a motorized paraglide, as investigations found no traces of the duo on the ground.

The PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S., Britain and the European Union, has waged a ruthless terror campaign against Türkiye for over 40 years, resulting in the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

The terrorist group, battered and demoralized by Turkish security forces' successful operations, has been in recent years losing members and failing to attract recruits, according to Turkish officials. Officials say its numbers in Türkiye have been reduced to hundreds, unlike the period between the 1980s and early 2000s. Still, the terrorist group maintains a sizable presence in northern Iraq's rugged terrain, as well as in northern Syria, close to the Turkish border, where its Syrian branch exploits the instability stemming from the ongoing Syrian civil war. Authorities say less than 200 PKK terrorists remain in Turkish territories, while others are confined to Iraq and Syria.

Yerlikaya said that the PKK has been one of the top security problems for Türkiye for years, and it only came near extinction under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The minister said President Erdoğan's vision of the "Century of Türkiye" included removing terrorism from the agenda by eradicating it. The minister stated that they carried out 65,730 operations against the PKK, including 1,132 operations in cities and 54,598 others in rural areas. He said 26 among them were major operations.

The minister said operations against the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) also continued and 2,689 people were detained in 1,786 operations, adding that 536 were remanded in custody. FETÖ was behind a 2016 coup attempt that killed 251 people in Türkiye when it faced renewed scrutiny for its infiltration into the army, law enforcement and other institutions. As for Daesh, Yerlikaya said they carried out 377 operations against the terrorist group in the past 120 days and captured 60 terrorists alive, while another turned himself in. He said 661 suspects were detained and 161 were remanded in custody in operations against Daesh, which was responsible for the biggest terrorist attacks on Turkish soil in recent years, from Ankara and Gaziantep to Istanbul.

Also on Thursday, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced that a total of 1,640 PKK terrorists have been eliminated since the beginning of 2023. A ministry official told reporters in the capital, Ankara, that 252 terrorists were "neutralized" last week alone.