ANKARA (Sputnik) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in his New Year’s statement that Turkish security forces killed 3,100 PKK militants in 2015.
"Turkey is conducting an active fight against the PKK terrorist group. Turkish servicemen and policemen take maximum measures during counterterrorist operations to prevent harm to the civilian population. PKK, in turn, uses civilians as a ‘human shield,’" Cavusoglu told the NRC Handelsblad newspaper in an interview on Saturday.
Tensions in Turkey escalated in July 2015, after 33 Kurdish activists were killed in a suicide blast in the city of Suruc and two Turkish policemen were later murdered by the PKK, which led to Ankara's military campaign against the group.
The Kurds, Turkey's largest ethnic minority, are striving to create their own independent state. The PKK was founded in late 1970s to promote the self-determination for the Kurdish community.
