Number of PKK terrorists fell 83% in last 4 years: Minister Soylu

Over the last four years the number of PKK terrorists in Turkey has plunged 83%, Turkey's interior minister said Tuesday.

"Over the last four years the number of armed PKK terrorists in Turkey has dropped 83% to around 300," Süleyman Soylu told a training and coordination meeting for special operation forces in the capital Ankara.

While participation in the PKK has reached a record low, more members are leaving the terrorist group than ever before, Soylu added.

The terrorist PKK once had over 5,500 members, said Soylu, but as of 2020, only 53 people joined the illegal outfit, down from 132 in 2019. A mere two people joined the terror group in 2021, he added.

In 2020 alone a total of 243 PKK terrorists surrendered in Turkey as a result of persuasion efforts by security forces, he added.

Soylu also said that a total of 6,021 civilians have been killed by the PKK since it was founded.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK-listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union-has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

In recent years Turkey has stepped up operations at home and across borders against the terrorist group, and also convinced rising numbers of its members to quit the PKK.