Turkish military says the PKK has suffered heavy losses in the recent airstrikes and its members are deserting the outlawed organization.
"Turkish Armed Forces' airstrikes on PKK targets in northern part of Iraq since Dec. 16 have created a serious pressure on the organization," Gen. Metin Gurak, chairman of the Communication Department of the General Staff, said Friday, Anatolia news agency reported.
Gurak highlighted that the region is no more a safe haven for members of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and that a considerably large number of PKK forces has fled from the outlawed organization.
Turkish military has taken all kinds of measures to prevent any civilian casualties in the strikes, he assured.
Gurak's comments came two days after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visit to the Turkish capital of Ankara, in which he stressed that Iraq would continue fighting against terrorism.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani had earlier said that both the government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish administration were determined to end the presence of the PKK in the north.
Kurdish parties in northern Iraq would soon hold a meeting to discuss a joint appeal to Kurdish rebels to lay down arms, he had said.
Commenting on the remarks, Gen. Gurak said "we hope that Iraqi authorities could contribute to the fight against the PKK."
Ankara has tightened the screw on the PKK as Turkish jets pound their targets in cross-border operations in northern Iraq.
The Kurdish Workers' Party took up arms in 1984 in a bid to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey.
Ankara, along with the European Union and the United States, labels the group as a terrorist organization and accuses it of being responsible for some 40,000 deaths in more than two decades of struggle for independence.
MRS/MMN