A total of 103 terrorists were eliminated throughout November in Türkiye and 17 terrorist plots were foiled, according to Deputy Interior Minister Ismail Çataklı.
Turkish security forces conducted 11,868 operations, 11 of which were major and 50 of which were medium-scale, in the countryside against the PKK terrorist organization, Çataklı said Monday citing official data.
Türkiye also led 1,205 operations against the cell formations and accomplices of all terrorist organizations across its provinces in November, Çataklı told reporters at a monthly briefing in Ankara.
Of the 103 terrorists eliminated, three were killed, 91 were captured alive and nine turned themselves in, Çataklı noted.
Seventy-eight of the terrorists were members of the PKK, 24 belonged to Daesh and one was a member of a leftist terrorist group. Two of them were also on Türkiye’s gray list of wanted terrorists, Çataklı added.
The official said 10 terrorists belonging to the PKK’s mountain unit were neutralized in rural operations, with three of the terrorists killed, two captured alive and five turning themselves in.
Additionally, Çataklı revealed that Turkish authorities detained 2,110 people last month suspected of aiding, abetting and having links to terrorist organizations. Of those detained, 840 belong to the PKK, 991 were members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), 259 belong to Daesh and 20 belong to a leftist terrorist group.
Following the detentions, 376 arrests were made, Çataklı added.
Commenting on Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu's announcement that the number of terrorists in the mountains has dropped to below 120, Çataklı said: "The number of terrorists of course doesn’t consist of just terrorists in the mountains. There are collaborators in our cities, aiders and abettors, their offshoots abroad. The number Mr. Soylu gave as 120 indicates the number of armed terrorists in the group’s mountain crews. There are other terrorist organizations in Türkiye besides the PKK."
Listing the achievements in the counterterrorism operations, he said 136 terrorist lairs and caves were destroyed while 148 weapons, 44 mines and handmade explosives, 122 grenades, 375 kilograms (826 pounds) of explosive agents and 32,996 units of various ammunition were seized.
The same month, Türkiye foiled 17 terrorist plots, Çataklı added, noting that Operations Eren Blockade Fall-Winter that began on Oct. 1 continues to progress in 15 different regions in Türkiye’s southeastern provinces.
The official also assured that authorities are continuing to search for everyone connected to the terrorist attack on Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district on Nov. 13, which left six dead and 81 injured.
In the wake of the attack, the "disinformation machine" kicked in, said Çataklı, arguing that attempting to defend the perpetrators and protect terrorist nests means "undermining Türkiye’s war on terror and the intelligence of its government."
"The picture of this attack on civilians on Istiklal Street is quite clear. The terrorist group PKK/YPG, fed by global powers and defended by certain clusters at home, has added a new one to the civilian massacres it has committed a hundred times before. The Turkish government continues to find the perpetrators," he said.
Türkiye has been combatting terrorism both at home and beyond its borders for decades now against foes like the PKK and its various subsidiaries as well as Daesh and FETÖ.
The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization in the U.S., European Union and Türkiye, and has been waging a bloody terrorist campaign against the country for four decades, attacking both security personnel and civilians. It has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people since 1984, with its massacres peaking especially in the 1990s.
Since it gained global prominence in 2014, Daesh led multiple attacks on Türkiye, which was one of the first countries to recognize it as a terrorist group a year prior. The group has claimed over 300 lives and injured hundreds more in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks and four armed assaults.
FETÖ, meanwhile, is an illegal organization aiming to establish a new political, economic and social order by exploiting Islam. The group, which began infiltrating Turkish law enforcement, judiciary and bureaucracy more than four decades ago, orchestrated a defeated coup d’etat in 2016, leaving 251 people dead and 2,734 injured.