President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Türkiye has almost completed clearing terrorists off its border with Iraq and will continue to carry out counterterrorism operations with determination.
Speaking to reporters following a cabinet meeting in the capital Ankara, Erdoğan said Türkiye will not let the formation of a terrorist state on its borders.
"We will have resolved the problems on our border with Iraq by the summer," he said, adding that the country has effective plans to permanently wipe terrorists off.
Regarding the border with Syria, Erdoğan said Türkiye is determined to establish a 30-40 kilometer security corridor to completely secure its southern borders.
The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, Britain and the European Union – is responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye during an almost four-decadelong campaign of terror.
Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq.
Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there, and it regularly launches operations against the PKK, which operates a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil province, although the area is under de jure control of the KRG.
Türkiye's military involvement in northern Iraq dates back over two decades, separately from its operations against the PKK, and also included 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.
The terrorist group has been more active in Syria after a civil war broke out more than a decade ago.
In the last few years, Ankara's intensifying operations in northern Iraq have demolished terrorist lairs in the Metina, Avashin-Basyan, Zap, and Gara districts. Still, Baghdad has yet to recognize the PKK as a terrorist group officially, and Turkish strikes remain a prickling issue between the neighbors.
Turkish officials have repeatedly urged Iraq, as well as the KRG, to recognize the PKK, stressing that the group, which occupies Sinjar, Makhmour, Qandil and Sulaymaniyah, threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq.
Ankara has also expressed readiness to collaborate with Baghdad against both the PKK and Daesh.
Both MIT and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) regularly conduct cross-border operations in these regions, particularly in northern Iraq, where the PKK terrorists have hideouts and bases from which they carry out attacks against Türkiye.
Urging a unified Islamic world "like bricks of a wall, especially for Gaza," he said: "The solution to the (Gaza) problem lies in achieving effective and resolute international consensus."
"Türkiye is doing its best for Gaza and Palestine, and it will continue to do so," Erdoğan added.
Last fall, a contact group was formed by the regional countries along with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League to push for a cease-fire in Gaza and the establishment of a state of Palestine along the pre-1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem.
Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed over 30,000 people and injured nearly 72,000 others, with mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
