Kurdish militants attack Turkish army vehicle. Photo: PKK/ANF
QANDIL,— According to PKK’s balance sheet of war for 2016, 3,404 Turkish police and soldiers were killed, one F-16, 3 helicopters and 166 armored vehicles -including 8 tanks- were destroyed. 585 Kurdish guerrillas fell fighting during the year.
The press office of the HPG (People’s Defense Forces), the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK, has released the balance sheet of war for the year of 2016.
The statement said that Kurdish guerrillas as People’s Defense Forces fought a huge battle of resistance against the attacks launched by Turkey throughout 2016 based on policies of genocide and all-out annihilation.
HPG stressed that the battle that escalated during the first months of the year later enhanced and expanded from Amed to Botan, Dersim, Serhat, Amanos and Black Sea regions.
The statement emphasised that:
“During this huge battle of resistance, Turkish state forces suffered their heaviest losses in the war of 2016. The annihilation operations they launched with thousands of soldiers and technically equipped heavy weaponry had to be retreated due to the losses of Turkish forces. The enemy forces failed in the guerrilla war which has been carried out more professionally.”
HPG said hundreds of guerrillas gave a struggle on a self-sacrificial basis, and commemorated all the guerrillas and patriotic civilians that lost their lives during the resistance to protect the values created by the Kurdish people.
The statement gave the following detailed figures as to the balance sheet of war between guerrillas and Turkish forces throughout the year of 2016:
Operations And Attacks By The Turkish Army
Land operations carried out by the Turkish Army: 323
Aerial attacks (warplanes): 406
Cobra helicopter attacks: 88
Mortar, howitzer and tank attacks: 493
Actions By Kurdish Guerrillas
Actions carried out by guerrillas and clashes: 1150 (160 clashes)
Determined death personnel of Turkish forces (police-military): 3404 (38 high-ranking)
Determined wounded personnel of Turkish forces: 1334
Destroyed military (armored) vehicles: 166 (including 8 tanks)
Damaged military (armored) vehicles: 48
Destroyed aerial vehicles: 4 (including one F-16 jet)
Damaged helicopters: 25 (14 Sikorsky, 11 Cobra)
Actions with unverified results: 286
Martyred guerillas: 585 (13 fell in Shengal)
Imprisoned guerrillas: 14
Since July 2015, Turkey initiated a controversial military campaign against the PKK in the country’s southeastern Kurdish region after Ankara ended a two-year ceasefire agreement. Since the beginning of the campaign, Ankara has imposed several round-the-clock curfews, preventing civilians from fleeing regions where the military operations are being conducted.
Observers say the crackdown has taken a heavy toll on the Kurdish civilian population and accuse Turkey of using collective punishment against the minority. Activists have accused the security forces of causing huge destruction to urban centres and killing Kurdish civilians.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 79-million population.
A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974, and has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.
Source: Ekurd.com