*UPDATED AT 15:30 (cet)
Top Turkish officials held a 45-minute security meeting following the loss of nine soldiers in the Zap region of Iraq. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan chaired the meeting.
The high-level meeting included Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, Defence Minister Yaşar Güler, Chief of General Staff Metin Gürak and National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) chief İbrahim Kalın.
President Erdogan arrived at the Dolmabahçe office, where the security summit was to take place, at 13:05. Originally scheduled to begin at 14:30, the meeting was delayed until 16:15 due to Minister Güler’s attendance at a military ceremony in Şırnak (Şirnex).
No specific details of the discussions held during the security summit were made public.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called an emergency security meeting following the loss of Turkish soldiers in military operations targeting Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region on Friday.
The meeting, announced by presidential communications director Fahrettin Altun on Friday evening, will take place in Istanbul on Saturday at 14:30 local time and will be attended by senior state officials.
The decision to call the security meeting comes in the wake of the Turkish Defence Ministry’s announcement confirming casualties in the ongoing operation known as ‘Operation Claw-Lock’, which has been underway since April 2022.
The ministry announced on Friday evening that five Turkish soldiers had been killed and three others seriously injured in the region where Operation Claw-Lock is being actively conducted. The number of dead soldiers had risen to nine by mid-morning.
The People’s Defence Forces (HPG) announced that the guerrilla forces had “completely cleared the Turkish soldiers from their positions” on Friday.
The meeting is expected to be attended by the country’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, Defence Minister Yaşar Güler, Chief of General Staff Metin Gürak and the head of the National Intelligence Organisation İbrahim Kalın.
