The Importance of Aerial Counterterrorism Activities: The Case of Türkiye

Fatma Nur Günay

The Republic of Türkiye has faced various security threats, especially terrorism since its establishment. Iraq-based separatist terrorist organizations became visible in the 1980s. Türkiye's internal security has been threatened by the separatist terrorist organization PKK/KCK, which has created a covert and illegal line from the Iraqi border regions to Türkiye, by carrying out terrorist attacks whenever it finds an opportunity. On the other hand, Türkiye has continued its counterterrorism activities with innovative security policies and revisionary operational approaches by adapting to the global security perception that has changed over time. Therefore, Türkiye has implemented different counterterrorism strategies from time to time both against changing terrorist threats and changing conjunctures.
In this book, Türkiye's changing and transforming counterterrorism activities are discussed within the scope of aviation operations. Within the context of the New Security Concept, increasing the internal security aviation operations as part of the "Uninterrupted" counterterrorism operations carried out under the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior came to the fore in the period between 2016-2021. In this respect, the capacity of the terrorist organization to attack was disrupted, especially by neutralizing the so-called leaders of the terrorist organization PKK/KCK by making use of the surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeted killing functions of the UAVs/UCAVs.

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