The Turkish military killed 20 fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after they tried to attack army bases in the southeastern Hakkari province, the military said on Saturday, December 3, acording to Reuters.

The fighters crossed into Turkey from northern Iraq and attempted to launch attacks on military bases in the mountainous border region, the military said, without giving further details.

Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast has been rocked by violence since a 2-1/2 year ceasefire between the government and the PKK broke down in July last year. The PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, first took up arms in 1984.

More than 40,000 people, most of them Kurds, have died in the fighting since.

ISTANBUL

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s candidate for the Diyarbakır mayoral seat has said the territory where Kurds live in Turkey is called Kurdistan.

“I wouldn’t hesitate to call every territory where Kurds live Kurdistan. I myself am Kurdish as well, and I live there,” Galip Ensarioğlu said late Dec. 3, speaking in an interview on broadcaster CNN Türk.

However Ensarioğlu, who is preparing to run for the post during March 2014 local elections, asserted that his remarks did not imply the necessity of a sovereign Kurdistan state.

“The phrase ‘Turkish Kurdistan’ might be interpreted differently. Connotations that the four areas [where Kurds live – in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria] will unite in the future and a sovereign state will be established are intentionally provoked by some people. But the name of the territory where Kurds live in Turkey is Kurdistan,” he said.

He said Iraq and Iran constitutionally defined the territories where their Kurdish citizens live in as Kurdistan, and added that he saw no problem with that.

Current Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir also used the phrase “Turkish Kurdistan” on the same TV program.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used the term “Kurdistan” to define the territory during a joint rally with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) leader Masoud Barzani on Nov. 16, in apparent defiance of criticism from ultra-nationalists to his approach and language.

Terrorist State of Turkey claim killed 20 Kurdish fighters in Hakkari

AKP Diyarbakır candidate says territory where Kurds live is ‘Kurdistan’