'Turkey could launch op against PKK terror HQ'

By Faruk Zorlu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's deputy prime minister on Monday said Turkey reserves the right to launch an operation where there is a threat to Turkey, mentioning the top base for the PKK terrorist group.

Speaking to reporters after a Cabinet meeting in Ankara, Bekir Bozdag said about a possible military operation on Mt. Qandil, Iraq, the PKK’s headquarters: “Turkey could enter Qandil, anything could happen.”

“Where there is a terrorist threat to Turkey, there is a target for Turkey. Both terrorists and all the resources of terrorism are the targets for Turkey,” he added.

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 PKK resumed its armed campaign.

In its 30-year-plus terrorist campaign against Turkey, the PKK has been responsible for some 40,000 deaths.