{"id":4512,"date":"2008-09-21T17:19:15","date_gmt":"2008-09-21T14:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=4512"},"modified":"2014-01-01T20:14:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T18:14:00","slug":"turkey-military-reports-major-gains-against-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2008\/09\/21\/turkey-military-reports-major-gains-against-terror\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey military reports major gains against terror"},"content":{"rendered":"<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"2\" cellpadding=\"2\" width=\"480\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"485\" height=\"21\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"306\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\"><span class=\"LightBlue\"><br \/>\nThursday, September 18, 2008 <\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Headline\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<div>ANKARA \u2014 The Turkey <span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff; position: static;\"><span class=\"kLink\" style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman; position: relative;\">military<\/span><\/span> has determined that the Kurdish insurgency was heading for a breakdown.Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug said the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, has been severely harmed by a Turkish military offensive over the last year. Basbug, who assumed his new post in August 2008, said the PKK has sustained hundreds of casualties in 2008 in Turkish air and ground operations.<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div>\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"3\" cellpadding=\"0\" width=\"300\" align=\"right\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><!-- begin ZEDO for channel: - World Tribune , publisher: World Tribune , Ad Dimension: Medium Rectangle - 300 x 250 --><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><!-- end ZEDO  for channel: - World Tribune , publisher: World Tribune , Ad Dimension: Medium Rectangle - 300 x 250 --><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;The PKK is moving towards the breaking point now,&#8221; Basbug told a briefing on Sept. 16. &#8220;I do not say they are at the breaking point. How can we benefit from this? If we can succeed in it, then we can reach at breaking point.&#8221;<br \/>\nOfficials said the Turkish military has urged the government of <span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff; position: static;\"><span class=\"kLink\" style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff; border-bottom: blue 1px solid; font-family: Times New Roman; position: relative; background-color: transparent;\">Prime <\/span><span class=\"kLink\" style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff; border-bottom: blue 1px solid; font-family: Times New Roman; position: relative; background-color: transparent;\">Minister<\/span><\/span> Recep Erdogan to extend permission for the campaign against the PKK in northern Iraq. Parliament has approved Turkish military operations in Iraq until Oct. 17.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div>\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><script src=\"http:\/\/ws.amazon.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ID=V20070822\/US\/worldtribuncomyo\/8002\/07ad5eb6-06d4-4c59-a845-fd5527a57c9e\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><noscript><\/noscript><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Basbug said the PKK&#8217;s operational ability has been sharply eroded. He said PKK operations dropped from 6,446 in 1994 to 1,171 in 2008. Civilian casualties in 2008 were reported at 42, in contrast to 992 in 1994.&#8221;This means it is a big mistake to say that we got back to the 1990s in the fight against terrorism,&#8221; Basbug said.<\/p>\n<p>Basbug said the PKK has been struggling to replace its dead fighters. He said recruitment, mostly targeting teenagers, takes place in Iran, Syria, Turkey and <span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff; position: static;\"><span class=\"kLink\" style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman; position: relative;\">Western <\/span><span class=\"kLink\" style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman; position: relative;\">Europe<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is an impression that the majority of recruitments from <span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff; position: static;\"><span class=\"kLink\" style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff; border-bottom: blue 1px solid; font-family: Times New Roman; position: relative; background-color: transparent;\">Turkey<\/span><\/span> are from southeastern Anatolia,&#8221; Basbug said. &#8220;But this is not true. One-third of the organization is comprised of Syrians.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The chief of staff said the military has sought to foil the PKK in its recruitment stage. He said the Kurdish insurgency group has been targeting youngsters ages 14 through 18.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If we can save them from the hands of the organization we will do a big job,&#8221; Basbug said. &#8220;Campaigns should be held to find jobs for unemployed children.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" \/>\n<div><strong><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday, September 18, 2008 \u00a0 \u00a0 ANKARA \u2014 The Turkey military has determined that the Kurdish insurgency was heading for a breakdown.Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug said the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, has been severely harmed by a Turkish military offensive over the last year. Basbug, who assumed his new post in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":782149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[246,247],"class_list":["post-4512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dhkpc","tag-kurdish-hizbullah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}