12 June 2018•Update: 12 June 2018
GAZIANTEP, Turkey
Turkey will take all necessary measures to eliminate any threat against it from Qandil, the country’s justice minister said on Tuesday.
“We will take all kind of decisive measures and steps until all the threats against Turkey from Qandil are removed,” Abdulhamit Gul said in a live interview with CNN Turk in southern Gaziantep province.
“Turkish armed forces, [which will] make no compromise, will decisively continue to fight against any kind of elements threatening Turkey until all [terrorists] are eliminated,” Gul said.
Turkey has launched anti-terror operations in both Qandil and Sinjar regions in northern Iraq, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.
Separately, on Tuesday midnight, Turkish jets destroyed 12 targets in northern Iraq, including Mt. Qandil.
Airstrikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq, where the terror group has its main base in the Mt. Qandil region, near the Iranian border, have been carried out regularly since July 2015, when the terrorist PKK resumed its armed campaign.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey as well as the U.S. and EU. In its terror campaign against Turkey, which has lasted for more than three decades, over 40,000 people have been killed, including women and children.
Speaking about Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) Gul said 500 people, who were dismissed over alleged ties to the terror group, reinstated over the last month with the decision of state of emergency commission.
FETO and its leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
Responding to a question regarding Manbij-focused meetings between Turkey and the U.S., the minister said there would be another meeting in Turkey in July.
On June 4, the roadmap on Manbij was announced after a meeting in Washington between Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The deal focuses on the withdrawal of the PKK-affiliated YPG terror group from the northern Syrian city and stability in the region.
On Monday, the U.S. Secretary of State Jim Mattis said U.S. and Turkish officials would also meet in Stuttgart, Germany this week to discuss the military implementation of the Manbij-focused roadmap.
Following a visit by former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Ankara in February, Turkey and the U.S. established a mechanism to address separate issues in working groups, including the stabilization of Manbij, a northern Syrian city, and to prevent any undesirable clashes.
Reporting by Kerem Kocalar:Writing by Cansu Dikme
