The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday that a total of 64 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists have been “neutralized” across Turkey over the past week.
According to the ministry statement, Turkish security forces killed 45 PKK members and 11 PKK members surrendered to security forces in the same period, while eight PKK militants were captured.
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.