Turkey, PKK publish annual casualty figures for 2022

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) released their conflicting number of annual fatality figures for 2022, with the ongoing conflict between the two spanning across borders and multiple operations. 

The Turkish interior ministry on Wednesday claimed that its forces inflicted 1,220 casualties, including 87 senior officials, on a number of “terror” groups including the PKK, with Minister Suleyman Soylu stating that Turkish security forces foiled 18 suicide bombings throughout the year.

Soylu however did not elaborate whether the casualty statistics are limited to inside Turkey or also include bordering countries where anti-PKK operations are ongoing, including the Kurdistan Region and Syria. 

The People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the armed wing of the PKK, claimed that 2,942 Turkish soldiers were killed and 408 injured during their attacks against the Turkish army, adding that 301 of their fighters lost their lives during the clashes. 

The conflict between Turkey and the PKK spans across several countries, including Turkey itself. Ankara pursues the Kurdish group on the basis that it threatens Turkey’s national security and has designated it as a terrorist organization. 

The PKK is a Kurdish armed group fighting for the increased political and cultural rights of Kurds in Turkey. 

Turkey on November 20 launched Operation Claw-Sword targeting Kurdish positions of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the PKK in northern Syria and the Kurdistan Region from the skies. The operation, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is a prelude to a looming ground offensive in those areas. 

The YPG is the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a mostly-Kurdish force in Syria that fought the lion’s share of the battle against the Islamic State (ISIS) and ultimately territorially defeated the terror group in 2019. 

The aforementioned operation follows Operation Claw-Lock, which was launched by Turkey on April 18 with the goal of removing PKK fighters from the areas of Metina, Zap, Avashin, and Basyan in northern Duhok province along the Turkish border. The operation aims to cut the PKK’s access to mainland Turkey. 

In October, PKK-affiliated Firat News Agency (ANF) published several videos purportedly showing Turkish soldiers targeting its fighters with chemical weapons, adding that Turkey has used banned bombs and chemical substances at least 2,476 times since April.

The Turkish defense ministry later deemed the claims that its soldiers used chemical weapons against the PKK "completely baseless and untrue."

More than 500 villages have been emptied in the Kurdistan Region over three decades of the Turkey-PKK conflict.