Turkey: PKK earns $1.5B annually from drugs

Turkish Minister of Interior, Suleyman Soylu (3rd L) speaks to media as Turkish Minister of Health, Recep Akdag (R) stands next to him in front of the Sisli Etfal Hospital where some of the wounded victims hospitalized after an armed terror attack staged at a nightclub, on January 01, 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey [Yasin Aras / Anadolu Agency]

Turkey’s interior minister on Sunday said the PKK terror group earns $1.5 billion annually from drugs.

“The revenue PKK earns from drugs annually is $1.5 billion […] PKK is an organisation [involved in] human smuggling and drug trafficking. Even the US has confessed this reality in official reports,” Suleyman Soylu said at the Fight With Narcotic Crimes Evaluation Meeting in southern Antalya province.

Soylu said terror and drugs support each other.

“Terror opens space for drugs and provides logistical facilities to it. Drugs, on the other hand, provide finances to terror,” he said.

The interior minister said the 28 members of the EU seized a total amount of 4.27 tons of heroin in 2016.

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“The amount we [Turkey] seized alone in 2017 was 15 tons and 17.9 tons in 2018,” he added.

In its more than 30-year “terror campaign” against Turkey – the PKK, recognised as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US, and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people.

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