the east of turkey is an unknown area by my standard and imho its just a biologist playing to seperate the subspecies anatolian leopard and balochistan leopard on the iran/pakistan border form the persian leopard. the leopard habitat from turkey to india is well connected.
I would say if we hear that any 5 years a leopard is shoot in turkey they are well and alive. they are few but they are in contact with the main population in iran. the leopard is probably the most clever big cat having the same problems with humans in middle east than anywhere else.
I doubt it would be so simple to exterminate him.