Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday said Ankara is close to realizing its goals in its ongoing military operations against Kurdish fighters in neighbouring Iraq and Syria’s north. Erdoğan’s remarks come a day after the Turkish Defence Ministry announced one soldier had been killed and another injured in northern Iraq after an improvised explosive device detonated, and accused the “separatist group” of the incident. Turkey often uses the term to refer to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkey, the US and EU also classify the PKK as a terrorist group. “We are going to c…