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Turkey aims to cripple, not contain, PKK

Turkish security forces are taking a much more aggressive approach against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but how will Turkey transform operational military success into a sustainable and peaceful political resolution?
KILIS, TURKEY - MARCH 02:  Turkish soldiers from the 1st Border Regiment Command run through alert drills at a military outpost on the Turkey/Syria border on March 2, 2017 in Kilis, Turkey.  The military exercises were held to display the new border wall and new security measures such as thermal scanning and patrols by the new Tactical Armoured Reconnaissance vehicles (Kobra-2) that are being used to tighten Turkey's border. The government announced this week that more than half of the 511-kilometer wall ha

Security forces have been conducting intensive operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) since March in southeast Turkey, particularly along a stretch of the border with Iraq between Silopi and Semdinli and in the Van Lake region on the Iranian border.

The operations can be defined as "area denial-search-destroy," with the objective of neutralizing (capture, wound or kill — in this case, primarily kill) PKK militants before they can complete the tactical move between their winter and summer operational deployments. In the winter, they often seek refuge in Iraq's mountainous Qandil regions, while in summer they deploy to more easily navigated areas of Turkey's interior, where they can launch attacks and withdraw quickly.

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