This winter, we lost 9 martyrs in yesterday's Matin Mountain attack, 7 in the previous two different Matin Mountain attacks, 6 in Hakurk/Sur hill, 3 in Amedi hill, and 1 in Seri. A total of 26 martyrs. The number of martyrs is the same as the total of two major operations, Claw-Thunderbolt, Claw-Lightning. You can compare the situation.
Indicated the regions where we lost martyrs and the number of martyrs on the map. The common feature of these regions is that they were not kept last winter. There had been deployments to the remaining hills, except for Hakurk/Sur hill, but when winter came, withdrawal took place.
The harsh criticism we made regarding the establishment of a base on Hakurk/Sur hill close to winter remains. I don't need to write again. Now we will examine the other 3 regions separately. First we examine Amedi, then Seri and Matin.
There was deployment on Amedi hill in the first year of Claw Lock (2022). There were 2 tunnels in the area. The hills held for the winter were evacuated and there was a deployment again last year. The organization evacuated one of the two tunnels. 1 tunnel left. It is not a big and crowded tunnel either.
Things were going well on Amedi Hill. Many terrorists were neutralized. "Many" caves recently evacuated by the organization were destroyed. Good bases were also established towards winter. So things were going well. But in the end, we still lost 3 martyrs.
Since we're not in the area right now, it wouldn't be nice to talk about the situation. But we can say that the situation is better compared to other regions. It is much safer than the other 3 regions. We martyrs due to the road, the base area was not infiltrated.
Seri is the second region in Iraq where we had the most martyrs this year, after Matin. The withdrawal took place in the winter of 2022. In 2023, the operation started late due to the election. When the op started in the region, we also saw that the terrorists were waiting for the Turkish Armed Forces to come again.
Support was sent to the tunnel. New loopholes have been opened in the tunnel area. In 2022, the tunnel and its entrances were somehow taken under control. Terrorists were coming to the hill from the south. This year, tunnel entrances could not be taken under control.
As a result, they came out of the tunnel and carried out many attacks. The tunnel is also very big. There is no way it can be destroyed with current tactics.
We continued to try the same things and we suffered martyrs. The situation continues the same way.
Let's come to Mount Matin. Mount Matin is the most difficult area for the Claw operation. There is a very large tunnel at the top. There is another large tunnel underneath. Think of it like a triangle with the base pointing sideways. Let the ends of the triangle be the tunnel entrances. As the corners of the triangle narrow, the risk increases.
Here, the safe zone is inside the triangle. Tunnel above, tunnel below. There is a possibility that they may come from both the right and the left. The place where the triangle is facing is Tepe Bahar. That's also a PKK base. Another issue is that the region remains above the civilian area.
It is a region we have never experienced before in claw operations. The organization is able to supply those terrorists below the hill. It can carry out surveillance work over civilian areas. They may come through civilian areas. So they have camouflage on them that we can't see until we they get to the walls of the base.
There is already a large group of PKK members right under the hill. There are still many terrorists at the top. It is quite disadvantageous for the Turkish Armed Forces. The two sides are very close to each other. This closeness benefits the PKK when weather conditions are bad. The weather conditions were the same both of the Matin Mountain attacks.
Under the current situation and conditions, I don't think there is anything the soldiers in the region can do. They cannot notice the PKK members until they open fire. Even after surviving the first fire, it is very difficult to recover from the shock and respond harshly to the attack. The terrorists are coming no stop anyway.
The terrorists who carried out the Amedi and Matin Mountain attacks come from Gara. Haki Armanc led the attacks. He was cornered in Turkiye before July 15. When the coup broke out, he somehow escaped to Iraq/Gara. Now he is leading the attacks on Claw Lock.
Solid intelligence is needed to prevent the supply coming from Gara. Because there is a civil zone between Gara and Zap/Metina regions. There is no strong order in this civilian area. PKK members come and go and do their business with the local people.
Let's return to Mount Matin again. There is 1 main base on Matin mountain. Next to the Peshmerga base. There are points holding the tunnels in front of this main base. The base was expanded rapidly in a really short time. We saw this both from satellite and from drone images shared by PKK.
But we still have to ask the question, was it enough for this winter? We also say this for the Matin Mountain region. Most of us here could barely believe that Mount Matin would be kept in winter. We were thinking that they would probably withdraw by November. But it's January and the construction equipment is still working.
There may be a logic that if we retreat here in winter, we will have a harder time next year. Because this happened in Seri. But you need to calculate if you have enough opportunities and suitable conditions to spend the winter there. If we lose 16 martyrs on just one hill in winter, we say neither the opportunity nor the conditions are suitable.
We did not lose 16 martyrs in Claw-Lightning. We cleared more than 10 hills in Claw Lightning. The area of the organization's Metina camp on the Turkish border was completely cleared. More than 100 terrorists were neutralized. Bases like castles were also established. They were not infiltrated for 2 years.
We don't understand what the Turkish Armed Forces is thinking here. There is a problem. TSK's solution to this problem is to push even harder. The problem persists, what should we do now? Let's push even harder. These are the consequences of pushing too hard.
For a good source on the operations in the north of Iraq:
https://twitter.com/hakikatlariniza
Retired General Osman Pamukoğlu: “I am against establishing bases across the border, we have nothing to do with land.
We are looking for the terrorist. We enter, destroy it in 3-4 days and leave.
