Turkey: At least 10 killed, almost 300 wounded in string of blasts in eastern Turkey

August 18, 2016 By administrator

A third explosion in the past 24 hours has rocked eastern Turkey, killing four security personnel and injuring seven in Bitlis province. It comes after two car bombings targeted police stations, leaving at least six people dead and as many as 290 injured.

First, village guard Müslüm Yaldız was killed, and a soldier wounded in clashes with PKK militants in the village of Nazar, Hurriyet Daily News reports. Then, a hand-made explosive went off on a road near the village of Gayda, when a military vehicle was passing by. Three soldiers were killed and six injured in that attack.

Early Thursday, a car bombing hit police headquarters in the eastern Turkish city of Elazig, the administrative center of Elazig Province.

A bomb-carrying car exploded in front of the police station building, creating a hole in it and severely damaging the facility, according to local media.

Another car bombing attack on a police station in the eastern province of Van, near the Iranian border, killed a police officer and two civilians late Wednesday.

https://twitter.com/MunzurMunzur62/status/766184632098426880

Kurdish Peshmerga forces liberate 6 villages east of Mosul

August 14, 2016 By administrator

This photo provided by Kurdish-language Rudaw television network shows Kurdish Peshmerga forces during an anti-Daesh military operation in Khazar region, northern Iraq, on August 14, 2016.

Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces have liberated five villages near Mosul from Takfiri Daesh militants as army troops and allied fighters are battling to drive the terrorists out of the militant-held northern city.

Peshmerga launched an operation in Khazar region east of Mosul at around 5:30 a.m. local time (0230 GMT) on Sunday, and managed to establish full control over the villages of Tal Hamid, Qarqasha, Abzakh and Dasht Takh following fierce exchanges of gunfire with Daesh militants, Kurdish-language Rudaw television network reported.

The report added that two vehicles rigged with explosives were destroyed during the operations. It, however, stopped short of specifying casualties on the ranks of Daesh Takfiris and Kurdish forces.

Kurdish sources, requesting anonymity, said Peshmerga troopers are poised to recapture at least 11 villages from Daesh during Sunday’s offensive.

Having suffered severe blows on the battleground near Mosul, Daesh terrorists have stepped up their acts of terror against civilians and security forces there.

In another development on Saturday, Iraqi media quoted Amir Wasiq, a senior police official in Nineveh Province, as saying that Daesh militants executed 60 ex-officers for cooperating with Iraqi intelligence services in an area south of Mosul.

Mosul fell into the hands of the Takfiri terrorists in June 2014 when they launched an offensive in Iraq.

Hisham al-Hashimi, a consultant to the Baghdad government on the anti-Daesh campaign, recently said a large-scale offensive for the liberation of Mosul was slated for late September.

Last week, Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said high-ranking Daesh militant commanders and their families had sold their belongings and fled Mosul as Iraqi forces were closing in on the city.

The Iraqi army and fighters from the Popular Mobilization units have been engaged in joint operations to retake militant-held regions.

Source: presstv.com

Erdogan no distinctions between PKK & Gulen, The exclusion of the pro-Kurd HDP in post-coup Turkey,

August 13, 2016 By administrator

kurd-exclusion The pro-Kurd Peoples’ Democratic Party has been excluded from Turkey’s post-coup “democracy” rallies and constitution talks. Observers say the HDP is gradually being left out of politics.

After the coup attempt on July 15, Turkey’s entrenched political polarization seemed to have given way to dialogue. And yet participating in the conversation has gotten increasingly harder for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which was not included in talks with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and National Movement Party (MHP). After not having been invited to the ” Democracy and Martyrs’ Rally” in Istanbul’s Yenikapi district on August 7, HDP has also been left out of the other major parties’ negotiations toward a new constitution.

The increase in terror attacks by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has also weakened the HDP’s influence in the arena of politics. The HDP had emerged as a voice of hope for marginalized Kurds and left-wing voters when it received 6 million votes, or 13.1 percent, in the June 2015 parliamentary elections.

The party’s share in the elections that followed on November 1 dropped to 10.75 percent, however, and its positive image suffered during a year of clashes between the PKK and Turkey’s military. Even though HDP did not have trouble preserving its constituency, the party is scarcely heard from within Turkey anymore.

‘The nationalist discourse’

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he did not invite the HDP to participate in his “democracy” rally because “I do not make distinctions between PKK and FETO” – an acronym for “Fethullah Terrorist Organization,” a reference to the US-based cleric whom the government has accused of planning the coup. “I do not invite people who are in cooperation with those types of organizations,” Erdogan said. “If I do, I cannot explain it to the martyrs, veterans.”

Ozer Sencar, the owner of Metropoll Research Company, said support for the AKP had increased Turkey-wide after the attempted coup d’etat, while the HDP’s had dropped to about 8 percent. Sencar said the HDP would not necessarily lose supporters for its exclusion from the rally and the constitutional talks between the other three parties with seats in parliament. But, Sencar added, the HDP has lost support from non-Kurdish voters. “As long as the nationalist discourse increases and gains influence, the statements that equate HDP with PKK also increase,” Sencar said. “Thus, HDP’s votes are fixed below the threshold.”

In a statement to the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet earlier this week, HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtas said the party’s door would be open to Erdogan if he wanted to engage in “principled and moral” reconciliation. Demirtas also denounced a recent declaration by Kurdish militants: “We do not approve of PKK’s statement on how they will extend the battle to the cities, and we do not accept it. PKK should focus on enhancing possibilities for peace. This is what we want as HDP.”

Mesut Yegen, a sociology professor who specializes in nationalism and Kurdish issues at Istanbul Sehir University, said it had become clear that the HDP was being marginalized despite the party’s efforts toward reconciliation. On the other hand, Yegen said, given the complexity of the issues involving Turkey’s large Kurdish minority, it would not be possible to ignore the party completely. “HDP looks like it is stuck between the government and Qandil,” Yegen said. “At the same time, the disturbance to the public from clashes in cities offers HDP an atmosphere in which it can speak out against the PKK,” Yegen added. “HDP is well-aware of the risks that could arise due to increased conflict between the government and PKK.”

Democracy for peace

Many Turks are disturbed by the ways in which the HDP is being left out of political discussions, but they have also watched with concern as the PKK has intensified its presence in cities after last year’s heavy destruction.

“To suggest that a political party that is supported by 15 million voters should be left out of the democratic mechanism is not good for Turkey,” said Burc Baysal, the president of DISIAD, an association of industrialists and businesspeople in Diyarbakir. He called the demonstrations after the failed coup a positive development for Turkey’s democracy, but added: “What should not be forgotten is that HDP has always paid the price for being on the streets. If people know the value of the streets now, HDP has a big share in this.”

Baysal said the mainstream media’s nonreporting of reconciliation efforts by HDP Co-Chair Demirtas had a negative impact on Turkey’s democracy. “We need a political attitude which would not exclude HDP, but would involve it,” Baysal said. “At this point, we will never accept PKK’s acts of violence in the cities. If there is even a tiny hope of peace, PKK should pave the way for civilian politics.”

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/the-exclusion-of-the-pro-kurd-hdp-in-post-coup-turkey/a-19472650

Kurdish Fighters PKK killed 4 Turkish soldiers

July 31, 2016 By administrator

Clashes between Turkish army and militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have claimed the lives of four Turkish soldiers.

Officials said Sunday that three soldiers were killed as PKK opened fire on forces stationed in a forested area of Ordu province in northern Turkey.

The provincial governor, Irfan Balkanlioglu, said in a statement that two soldiers were also injured in the skirmishes, adding that a large contingent of troops were sent to the area to assist an ongoing operation against militants.

Security sources said another soldier was killed and six more were wounded as Turkish forces launched a security operation in a remote corner of Hakkari province in southeast Turkey.

For about a year, Turkey has been carrying out a large-scale military crackdown on suspected PKK militants in the southeast. The military claims it has killed thousands of PKK members, although rights campaigners and Kurdish political parties challenge the figure, saying most of those killed have been civilians.

On Saturday, the army launched a counterattack on militants who were attempting to storm a military base in Hakkari. Sources said 35 PKK militants were killed in the clashes.

Dozens of Turkish soldiers have been killed in clashes with the PKK over the past months. Five soldiers were killed Friday after militants attacked troops on a road near Cukurca district in Hakkari.

Turkey has expanded its anti-PKK attacks into the Syrian and Iraqi territories, despite fierce opposition by the two Arab countries.

PKK says 442 Kurdish fighters, 2,982 Turkish police killed since last year

July 28, 2016 By administrator

QANDIL,— Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) armed wing, the HPG, has released casualty figures of the past year’s clashes between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish army according to which 442 guerrillas and 2,982 Turkish police and soldiers have been killed.

In a statement issued on Tuesday the HPG also said the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was “solely accountable” for the war and the destruction of Kurdish cities in the country.

“The AKP government was never committed to the peace process. It started a propaganda war before launching its indiscriminate offensive on July 24, 2015 which led to the total destruction of Kurdistan,” the statement reads and accuses the army of having used “the heaviest weapons with most destructive technology” against Kurdish cities.

According to the released data, the Turkish army has launched 356 land operations, 658 areal bombardments, 1649 heavy artillery shelling, 110 direct clashes since July last year.

The PKK guerrillas have during the same period carried out 1199 “actions”, destroying 386 military vehicles, 15 tanks, 4 Cobra helicopters and targeting 110 military checkpoints.

The numbers of the prisoners are accordingly 16 guerrillas and 13 soldiers and policemen.

The Turkish army has not commented on the figures although it has released different numbers in the past and put the death toll for the guerrillas considerably higher.

The balance sheet released by PKK of war in Turkish Kurdistan cities and towns for the period between 24 July 2015 and 23 July 2016.

The balance sheet for one year is as follows:

Members of state forces killed: 2218
Members of state forces injured: 690
Members of state forces taken prisoner: 2
Armored vehicles destroyed: 457
Armored vehicles damaged: 307
1 Sikorsky helicopter and 1 train were damaged
Drones downed: 65
PKK members martyred: 363
PKK members injured: 15
PKK members taken prisoner: 16
Civilians martyred: 298
Civilians injured: 27

PKK units also seized a large quantity of ammunition from Turkish state forces and destroyed several arms and vehicles belonging to Turkish forces.

Turkey has frequently bombed PKK bases inside Kurdistan region after clashes resumed between Ankara and Kurdish guerrillas in July 2015.

The PKK has some 5,000 guerrilla soldiers stationed mostly in the remote bordering areas of Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

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.

Pro-Kurdish opposition political parties say about 1,000 civilians, mostly Kurds, have perished in the fighting, since the Turkish offensive against the PKK centred in towns and cities in Turkish Kurdistan.

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 78-million population. A large Turkey’s Kurdish community openly sympathise with PKK rebels.

The PKK statement came only a day after the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) co-leader Selahettin Demirtas announced that the party intended to initiate talks between the PKK and Ankara after they stalled last year prior to the elections.

Demirtas has said the HDP plans to send two delegations to PKK leadership in Qandil Mountain in the Iraqi Kurdistan and Imrali Island on the Mediterranean coast where the influential PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is imprisoned and has been rejected to meet his HDP mediator since early last year.

Source: http://ekurd.net/kurdish-fighters-turkish-police-2016-07-28

Seven Turkish soldiers killed in two PKK attacks in southeast Turkey

July 10, 2016 By administrator

File photo shows Turkish army soldiers standing guard during operations against Kurdish militants southeast of the country. (AFP photo)

Two attacks claimed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants have killed six Turkish army soldiers in southeast of the country.

Security sources said Sunday that the first attacked killed five soldiers who were traveling in Hakkari Province when a roadside bomb ripped through their military vehicle.

They said PKK militants had planted the bomb on a road along the border with Iraq.

The Turkish army declared an alert for border units while an air-backed operation was launched to find those responsible.

State-run Anadolu agency quoted other military sources as saying that “PKK terrorists” were behind the attack.

In a separate development, Kurdish militants conducted a car bomb attack against a military outpost in the Ercis district of Van province in southeast Turkey, in which one soldier lost his life along with a member of the village guard, Anadolu agency reported.

At least 15 people were injured including 10 soldiers and five village guards during the second attack. Among those wounded, one was seriously injured in the mainly Kurdish province, AFP quoted a Turkish army statement as saying.

Southeastern Turkey has been the scene of deadly fighting between Kurdish militants and the military over the past months. The fighting escalated after Turkey declared the collapse of years-long peace negotiations with the Kurds last year and began imposing restrictions in Kurdish-dominated areas.

Ankara has also intensified attacks on alleged PKK positions in Iraq and Syria, further deepening the unrest inside its territories. The PKK, which mainly operates in the mountainous regions of Iraq, has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly attacks in major Turkish cities over the past months.

Turkey says it has managed to kill thousands of PKK militants in its massive operations in the southeast. Many challenge the figure, saying many of those killed were civilians. Official figures says around 600 Turkish soldiers, police forces and village guards have also been killed since the fighting flared up in July 2015.

Three people, including two soldiers died on Saturday after PKK militants carried out a car bomb attack on a military outpost in southeast Turkey and then opened fire on the facility. The car bombing which targeted the Cevizlik village outpost in Mardin province also injured 23 more soldiers.

Turkey: Car bomb attack on military outpost kills 3, wounds nearly 40 in SE Turkey

July 9, 2016 By administrator

People search for injured as smokes rise from the Midyat Police station after an explosion on June 8, 2016 in Midyat, southeast Turkey. © AFP

At least three people have lost their lives and more than three dozen sustained injuries in a bomb attack on a military outpost followed by shooting in Turkey’s southeastern province of Mardin.

The car bombing targeted the Cevizlik village outpost in Mardin province, which borders Syria, on Saturday around 12:40 p.m. (0940 GMT), killing two soldiers and a civilian, security sources said.

They added that those wounded in the attack included 23 soldiers, three of whom seriously hurt, 14 civilians as well as one member of the village guard.

The attack came a day after Turkish troops killed 19 PKK militants during clashes elsewhere in the mainly Kurdish region.

Turkish troops killed 17 PKK militants in the Semdinli district of Hakkari province on Friday.

Separately, further north in the Baskale district of Van province, security forces, who were destroying explosives planted beside a road, were engaged in a firefight and killed two PKK militants, according to a military statement.

Ankara has been conducting a large-scale campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the past few months. The Turkish military has also been pounding the group’s positions in northern Iraq.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 2015 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. More than 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, prompting the Turkish military operations.

A shaky ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK that had stood since 2013 was declared null and void by the militants following the Turkish strikes against the group.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey since 1984. The conflict has left more than 40,000 people dead.

Kurdish PKK killed Six Turkish soldiers in attacks in Turkey’s southeast

June 24, 2016 By administrator

AA photo

Six soldiers were killed on June 24 in two separate Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attacks in the Çukurca district of the southeastern province of Hakkari and the Derik district of the southeastern province of Mardin.

The Turkish General Staff announced that PKK detonated a hand-made explosive placed on the Hakkari-Çukurca motorway, killing four soldiers.

Gendarmerie Specialized Sgt. Ali Danyar, Gendarmerie NCO Mustafa Gevrek, Specialized Sgt. Karun Koçak and Gendarmerie Specialized Sgt. Kerim Örtücü lost their lives in the attack.

An air-supported operation was begun following the attack.

In a separate attack, a group of PKK opened fire on the Soğukkuyu Gendarmerie Post in the morning hours, triggering an armed clash. An additional team of reinforcements was also deployed to the post from the district center.

NCO Mustafa Ayna, 29, and Specialized Sgt. Oğuz Emre Erkoç, 36, were killed in an ambush as the reinforcements arrived at the area.

A wide-scale operation has begun in the region to apprehend the militants.

Meanwhile, one civilian was killed and another 16, including military personnel, were wounded on June 23 in a PKK car bomb attack in the Ömerli district of Mardin, the governor’s office has announced.

PKK militants remotely detonated a bomb-laden car at the entrance to the Ömerli Gendarmerie Post at around 8:25 p.m. A truck driver identified as Halil İbrahim Sevimli, who was passing near the post, was killed while five people were wounded in the attack, a statement by the Mardin Governor’s Office said.

Eleven military personnel and their relatives inside the military lodgings were slightly injured due to broken glass. The wounded were taken to hospitals in Mardin and Ömerli for treatment, the office said.

The explosion also created a hole on the Ömerli-Midyat motorway which was later closed to traffic.

Source: hurriyetdaily

Opposition warns of ‘ethnic civil war’ in Turkey

June 14, 2016 By administrator

Selahattin Demirtas, the head of Turkey’s left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)

The leader of a Turkish opposition party has warned of an “ethnic civil war” in the country as a result of growing divisions between Kurds and Turks.

“The war in Syria is tied to the conflict here because the Turkish government sees Kurds in Turkey and in Syria as one,” said Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The Turkish government has been hitting the positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey as well as in northern Iraq and Syria over the past months.

A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015 after a deadly bombing in the southern Kurdish town of Suruc, which claimed the lives of more than 30 people and wounded dozens more.

“It is impossible to have peace in Syria without peace in southeast Turkey,” Demirtas said in an interview with The Irish Times.

He pointed to the dire humanitarian situation in the southeastern parts of Turkey, which are home to ethnic Kurds, calling for urgent humanitarian aid.

“More than 500,000 Kurds have left their homes because of the clashes and thousands of people have no shelter, no place to live; only tents,” Demirtas said.

“There are more than 10 residential areas now completely destroyed. They need humanitarian aid urgently,” he added.

The Turkish parliament on Friday introduced a bill to grant immunity to soldiers who are involved in operations against “terrorist” groups.

According to the bill, whose draft was produced by the Defense Ministry, if security services commit an offence, it will be deemed as a “military crime” and therefore, will only be tried in a military court.

The bill also maintains that the permission of the Turkish prime minister would be required for the investigation and trial processes of commanders and the chief of general staff.

It also covers Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) personnel and civil servants “tasked within the battle against terrorism.”

The HDP has strongly censured the bill as a “coup agreement between the government and the military,” warning that the new law would give unprecedented powers to the military.

Last week, Erdogan claimed that the government forces had killed over 7,600 members of the PKK in Iraq and Turkey, a toll which has been highly disputed by the group.

Turkey: No cooperation with ‘terrorists’ in Syria

June 14, 2016 By administrator

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says Turkey will not allow cooperation with terrorist organizations in Syria, referring to Kurdish groups which the US supports.

Ankara and Washington have long been at loggerheads over the role of a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia.

Turkey says the fighters are a terrorist organization affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) but the US sees them as a partner in Syria operations.

In a speech to his ruling AK Party in parliament on Tuesday, Yildirim said Turkey won’t allow formation of new states in Syria, echoing suspicion that the Kurdish campaign was aimed at establishing a separate state.

Turkey has been shelling the positions of Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.

Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan angrily denounced US troops for wearing insignia of Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) during an operation in Syria.

In his Tuesday speech, Yildrim also said Turkey will never change its anti-terrorism laws, even if it would mean a collapse in a deal with the EU to secure visa-free travel for Turks to Europe.

Turkey and the EU have been discussing visa liberalization since 2013 and agreed in March to go ahead with it as part of a broader deal to halt refugees from Turkey to the EU.

But progress stalled when Brussels insisted that Ankara must also reform its tough anti-terror laws.

Ankara is under fire for its heavy-handed crackdown on the country’s Kurdish minority in the southeast.

Last month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu ruled out any potential alteration of the law.

source: presstv