Türkiye's Ministry of National Defense announced on Tuesday that six members of the PKK terrorist group were eliminated by security forces in Iraq.

The ministry said on X that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) eliminated six PKK terrorists in the Claw-Lock Operation zone in northern Iraq. The ministry added that Türkiye’s counterterrorism operations will continue with determination and without interruption.

In its nearly 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S., and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. Türkiye launched Operation Claw-Lock in April 2022 to target the PKK terror organization's hideouts in Iraq's northern Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan regions near the Turkish border.

Last week, a court in the capital, Ankara, handed down prison terms for a group of defendants linked to the terrorist group for inciting the deadly 2014 riots. Former senior officials of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and current members of its spiritual successor the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) were sentenced on terrorism charges over the riots. The HDP faces a lawsuit for its closure over its links to the PKK and most of its staff went on to establish DEM to avoid prosecution. DEM and other opposition parties were quick to brand the trial as "politicized," claiming authorities were seeking to stifle dissent. Devlet Bahçeli, chair of the government's main ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) defended the verdicts and said that the convictions were the result of "a (functioning) state of law." "No crime will go unpunished. Those who betrayed the country should pay the legal consequences of their actions," Bahçeli said on Tuesday in a speech at his party's parliamentary group meeting.

"The PKK and HDP have organic ties. I wonder why the Constitutional Court delayed the closure of the lawsuit. I wonder when (the judiciary) will hold the HDP's extension DEM accountable for its actions against Türkiye," he stated. "The HDP and this so-called successor should be shut down," Bahçeli said in his speech. He also criticized the main opposition, the Republican People's Party (CHP), for defining the verdicts as politically motivated and calling for opposing their recognition as such. "If punishment for killers of 37 people is not legitimate, I wonder what is the definition of law for you," Bahçeli said, referring to the victims of the 2014 riots.