Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu addressed 2,705 students training to be sergeants at the Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy on Friday evening.
“As a result of security operations, 342 terror attacks were prevented in 2016, 247 of which were planned to be explosive attacks and 23 of which were planned to be suicide bombing attacks. In the past three months, 5,836 operations were conducted. In the past two months, the number of people who have joined terrorist groups is five," said Soylu.
Soylu expressed that in response to terrorism, Turkey must do two things; correctly identify the threat and correctly identify the right response.
“Terror groups attacking Turkey may appear to be independent of each other but their main stance is the same, and so they are connected by the same aims," said Soylu.
The Interior Minister also said that the terror groups threatening Turkey were the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), People's Protection Units (YPG), Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) and Daesh.
Soylu described the ways in which the terror groups were attacking Turkey, saying, “There are those who operate mainly within our borders, such as the PKK. There are also those who operate across the Middle East geography and are trying to attack our borders."
