VAN, Turkey

Terrorists are seeking an opportunity to flee the PKK terror group, confessed a female terrorist who recently surrendered to Turkish security forces.

“Many [PKK terror] group members are seeking an opportunity to flee,” the Van Governorate quoted the terrorist, who laid down arms earlier this week as a result of persuasion efforts, as saying.

It said the terrorist had joined the terror group in 2012 and was active in Iraq’s Metina and Haftanin regions till 2014, in Syria between 2014-2017, and in Iraq’s Gara-Penjwen-Asos regions between 2017-2020.

The terrorist, who met with her sister and relatives at the Gendarmerie Command in the Edremit district of eastern Turkish province, said escaping from the terror group was the most important decision of her life.

Voicing her regret over joining the terrorist ranks, she said: “We were living under very tough conditions. We were having great problems.”

She said that is why the terror group has begun to dissolve.

“Come and surrender,” she called on the terror group members.

The number of terrorists who surrendered this year through persuasion efforts carried out by the police and gendarmerie forces reached 243, according to the Interior Ministry.

In Turkey, offenders who are linked to terrorist groups and surrender are eligible for possible sentence reductions under a repentance law.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

*Writing by Sena Guler