February 02, 2017•Update: February 03, 2017
By Orhan Onur
ANKARA
Turkish security forces have "neutralized" 56 PKK terrorists between Jan. 2 and 30, according to Interior Ministry sources.
Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" in their statements to imply the terrorist in question was either killed, captured or wounded.
According to the sources who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media, 20 terrorists were killed, 19 were captured and 17 others surrendered between Jan. 2 and 30.
Last month, security forces carried out 905 operations against the PKK terrorist organization. A total of 1,463 suspects were detained in last month's nationwide operations over charges of aiding PKK terrorist organization; 153 were remanded in custody.
In addition, 17 out of 302 suspects who were arrested in connection with the Daesh terrorist organization were remanded in custody.
During the same period, 1,425 out of 3,309 detained suspects linked to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) were remanded in custody.
Also, one out of 40 suspects who were detained in connection with leftist terrorist organizations was remanded in custody.
A total of 622 narcotics operations were carried out targeting the financial resources of the terrorist organizations. During the operations, over 12 tons of marijuana, 465 kilograms of heroin, 59 kg of opium as well as 395,822 pills were seized.
Authorities also found over 4.5 million smuggled cigarettes and over 2 million liters of liquid fuel. Some 143 out of 3,408 suspects detained were remanded in custody.
As a part of the fight against irregular migration, 7,988 migrants were apprehended and 65 out of 160 suspects detained were remanded in custody for human smuggling.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization Turkey, the U.S. EU. It has waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years during which more than 40,000 people have been killed.
Ankara holds FETO responsible for the July 15 attempted coup, which martyred 248 people and wounded around 2,200 others.
In addition to the deadly coup attempt, Ankara has said FETO is behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
