Türkiye gets support when fighting Daesh/ISIS but not PKK: AK Party spokesman

Türkiye gets support when there is an operation against Daesh/ISIS but not in operations against the PKK terrorist group, the spokesman for the Justice and Development (AK) Party said Thursday.

Ömer Çelik emphasized during a televised interview that if counter-terrorism operations were not carried out on Türkiye's border, terrorist structures would exist as statelets there.

Çelik said the PKK's course of action in Syria and Iraq is obviously guided by an entity that transcends the terrorist organization.

"Who is this? We are talking about whether it is a more collective structure. Judging by the way things are going, it seems to have received strong support. We've seen this before in Afghanistan. The US used Russia. There was a proxy war," he said.

He said the threat at Türkiye's frontiers would have increased if the Russia-Ukraine war had not taken place.

"If the Russia-Ukraine war had not occurred, imagine the equation where there is no war today. The threat on our borders would have grown even more.

"After all, it is not a choice but an existential necessity for Türkiye when it is threatened, including a distance of 30 kilometers from our border, to deploy and strike," he said.

Çelik added that these military operations would surely continue in order to secure Türkiye's national security, and they have uninterrupted contacts with the peoples of the region and with all groups.

"The longer this process takes, the more terrorist organizations begin to settle. The state and social structures here face great threats. Then, meeting with Syria and reopening the doors of communication come to the fore as a mandatory opening for the region," he added.

He said it is crucial to have powerful state structures surrounding Türkiye because they care about the territorial integrity of Syria and believe that the terrorist group threatens both Syria and Türkiye.