Turkish authorities on Friday detained four suspects who allegedly transferred religious donations to the terrorist group PKK.
The suspects are charged by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office of selling magazines and newspapers belonging to the terrorist organization and raising funds for the group under the pretext of collecting donations for religious holidays from its supporters through the KCK, an umbrella body founded to organize and coordinate PKK affiliates in Türkiye.
In investigations backed by physical and technical surveillance, phone records and data from the financial crimes department, prosecutors found the funds were transferred to jailed PKK members, their relatives, PKK supporters and the families of terrorists killed while partaking in the group’s rural activities.
Police seized 10,000 euros ($10,840.35) and $30,000 in cash, as well as unlicensed pump-action rifles, handguns, 181 bullets and digital materials during raids in three Istanbul districts.
The suspects have since been handed to police for processing.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, as well as the United States and the European Union. It operates in northern Syria through its local offshoot, the YPG, which has occupied a chunk of the country's northeast since 2015 with military support from the U.S.
Terrorists from PKK and other groups such as the YPG and Daesh rely on a network of members and supporters in Türkiye. In response, Ankara has been conducting pinpoint operations and freezing assets to eliminate the terrorist groups at their roots.
Similarly, on Friday, the Defense Ministry announced seven more PKK/YPG terrorists were eliminated in northern Iraq and Syria.
Three of the terrorists were eliminated in the Operation Claw-Lock zone of northern Iraq, while the remaining four were in the Operation Euphrates Shield zone in northern Syria, said a ministry statement.
Turkish airstrikes also target PKK/YPG hideouts in northern Iraq 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, as well as the war against Daesh, which controlled much of the area, in 2014 and 2015, when Ankara was an ally in the U.S.-led anti-Daesh campaign.
Ankara launched Operation Claw-Lock in April 2022, the latest in the string of cross-border "Claw" offensives kicked off in 2019, to demolish terrorist lairs across Metina, Avashin-Basyan, Zap and Gara districts.
In Syria, Türkiye conducted a trio of successful counterterrorism operations to both prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield in 2016, Olive Branch in 2018 and Peace Spring in 2019.