Turkey has been carrying out periodic raids on PKK positions in the mountainous region near Turkey's border with northern Iraq for months to try to crush the group, which wants a separate Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.
MUNICH (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Saturday to continue to hit Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in Iraq and criticized EU countries for not cracking down fully on PKK affiliates within the bloc.
Turkey has been carrying out periodic raids on PKK positions in the mountainous region near Turkey's border with northern Iraq for months to try to crush the group, which wants a separate Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.
"We are going to continue until we win," Erdogan said in a speech to a security conference in the southern German city of Munich. "We will continue until the end because the security of our people is our top priority."
Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since the group began its armed struggle in 1984.
!ADVERTISEMENT!On Monday, Turkish warplanes bombed 70 Kurdish guerrilla targets inside Iraq in one of the biggest raids in weeks.
Ankara says 3,000 PKK rebels are based in northern Iraq, from where they launch raids inside Turkey. Some 100,000 Turkish troops are massed along the border with Iraq.
Turkey's army killed 10 PKK separatists on February 3 in Bingol province in southeast Turkey and detained four later in the week, the military said in a statement on Saturday on the state-run Anatolian news agency.
Erdogan criticized European countries for failing to crack down on PKK-led organizations he said were operating across the bloc. Turkey, the United States and the European Union all class the PKK as a terrorist group.
"Despite this, the PKK is still operating in many European countries under different names. Unfortunately they are being supported," Erdogan said.
He said Turkey had difficulty understanding why any PKK affiliates would be allowed to be on free footing in European countries instead of being extradited to Turkey.
Last November, Turkey announced that Germany had extradited two Kurdish PKK militants in a move that was hailed by Turkish newspapers as a sign of increased European willingness to crack down on the outlawed organization.
But Ankara has often accused Europe of turning a deaf ear to calls for closer cooperation in tackling the group.
(Writing by Noah Barkin; Editing by Mark John)
