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Turkish defense minister: 2,304 PKK members ‘neutralized’ in 2017

Turkish Minister of Defense Nurettin Canikli attends the NATO Defense Ministers' meeting in Brussels, Belgium on November 09, 2017. Dursun Aydemir / Anadolu Agency

Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli has said 2,304 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants have been “neutralized” since Jan. 10, 2017.

“This is the one of the best results showing how much success we have had in this fight,” said Canikli.

Turkish authorities had conducted direct talks with jailed PKK chief Abdullah Öcalan for several years until a truce in effect collapsed in the summer of 2015.

Since then, there have been heavy clashes between the PKK and Turkish security forces.

More than 40,000 people, including 5,500 security force members, have been killed in four decades of fighting between the Turkish state and the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU.

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