Türkiye: helicopter accident causes death of four soldiers

Four soldiers were killed when a helicopter crashed in eastern Turkey for reasons still unknown, the Defense Ministry said Thursday. “Four of our heroic comrades-in-arms were killed when our S-70 helicopter crashed in Malatya for reasons that have not yet been determined,” the ministry said in a statement published on X.

The carcass was located and rescue operations immediately began, the same source added. Turkey has the second largest army in NATO. It has forces officially deployed for counterterrorism operations in Iraq and Syria.

It has no longer fought on its own territory since the end of the Kurdish rebellion, ratified by the launch in 2024 of a peace process between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).