Turkish operations eliminate nearly 38,000 terrorists since 2015

Türkiye has eliminated more than 37,800 terrorists in the past eight years, according to National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

“Since July 24, 2015, a total of 37,860 terrorists have been neutralized,” Akar said on Sunday at a conference in Istanbul on the Syrian conflict and the fight against terrorism.

Six more terrorists have been recently “neutralized” in the Operation Euphrates Shield region in northern Syria, he added.

Turkish authorities use the term “neutralized” to imply the terrorists in question have surrendered, been killed or captured.

While Akar did not specify any terror group, Türkiye has been conducting operations against terrorist organizations such as Daesh, the PKK, and its U.S.-backed Syrian branch, the YPG.

For more than 40 years, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S., the United Kingdom and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

Türkiye became one of the first countries to declare Daesh a terrorist group in 2013 and has since been attacked by Daesh multiple times, with over 300 people killed and hundreds more injured in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks and four armed assaults.

Starting in 2016, Ankara launched a trio of successful counterterrorism operations across its border in the north of Syria and Iraq to 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 targeted Daesh, the PKK, and the YPG, which has occupied almost one-third of northern Syria since Bashar Assad’s forces withdrew in 2012, a year after a civil war broke out in Türkiye’s southern neighborhood.

Across northeastern Syria and Iraq, PKK members operate a network of hideouts and lairs to plot terrorist attacks in the region and against Türkiye. Most recently, Ankara launched Operation Claw-Sword to decimate YPG targets in Syria in retaliation for a deadly terrorist attack in Istanbul last November.

Daesh and PKK/YPG also rely on a network of members and supporters in Türkiye for funds and recruitment. Turkish authorities have intensified their crackdown on terrorists and their links at home, conducting pinpoint operations and freezing assets to eliminate the terrorist groups by their roots.