Fewer youths joining PKK, says Turkish premier

IZMIR, Turkey (AA) – Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Friday the number of teenagers joining the PKK terrorist organization slowed in 2016 compared to previous years.

Speaking during the opening academic ceremony of a state university in Turkey’s western coastal province of Izmir, Yildirim said the PKK could no longer deceive and recruit young people.

Yildirim said over 4,500 young people joined PKK in 2014 “but they could only get only around 400 youths over the past 10 years to this year [2016]."

He said this was “because our teenagers see their future not in the PKK mountains but in a developed, grown and fully self-contained Turkey".

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year.

Since then, PKK terrorist attacks have martyred more than 700 security force members and also claimed the lives of many civilians, including women and children, while around 8,000 PKK terrorists have been killed or apprehended.