PKK: 12 Turkish soldiers and policemen killed in response to attacks on civilian Kurds

August 22, 2014 By administrator

August 22, 2014

QANDIL,— The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) said in a statement on Thursday that its guerrilla forces had carried out a series of retaliatory actions on Wednesday evening in response to the attacks in Lice in southeastern Turkey where a civilian was killed by Turkish troops after the demolition of a statue of Mahsum Korkmaz, Agit, a leading commander of PKK, at the “Şehîd Amed u Hevîdar Şehitliği” (Martyrs’ Cemetery) on August 19. Report by ekurd.com

PKK said a total of 9 Turkish soldiers and policemen were killed in guerrilla actions in Karaz (Kocaköy) village of Diyarbakir in Turkish Kurdistan, and 3 soldiers were killed in Lice.

According to the statement, the first retaliatory action was carried out in Karaz village of Diyarbakir where guerrilla forces deployed in three separate positions targeted the police headquarters, military lodging and district governor’s residence on August 20 evening. PKK remarked that following the guerrilla action, in which 9 soldiers and policemen were killed, the Turkish military delivered the casualties to Diyabakir.

Another action PKK said- targeted the Angul military post’s security hill, leaving one soldier dead the same day.

The statement remarked that Kurdish guerrilla forces also carried out an attack withwww.Ekurd.net heavy weaponry on the Korxê military post in Lice district on August 20. Two Turkish soldiers were killed and two others were wounded in the guerrilla action.

PKK noted that guerrillas also carried out a warning action against the Turkish army which -it added- didn’t fulfill what is necessary for the resolution process- hitting the Amutka military post under construction in Aliboğazı area in Dersim the same day. The exact number of casualties couldn’t be made clear, PKK added.

Turkey is seeking to restart stalled peace talks with the PKK to end a conflict that has claimed an estimated 40,000 lives.

Erdogan, who was elected president this month, launched clandestine negotiations with jailed Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 2012.

In a statement from his cell on the prison island of Imrali, Ocalan said last Saturday that Turkey was on the verge of “historic developments” and that the conflict was “coming to an end”.

Last week, Ocalan met chief of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT), Hakan Fidan, in his island prison. Sources said Ocalan received positive responses to his demands related to the “establishment of a monitoring board and negotiation delegations, as well as the improvement of working conditions,” sources said.

Since it was established in 1984 the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state, but now limited its demands to to establish an autonomous Kurdish region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds.

PKK statue’s removal triggers attacks on Atatürk busts in southeast

August 21, 2014 By administrator

DİYARBAKIR –

The removal of a statue of a senior member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has triggered clashes in southeastern Turkey, with protesters targeting busts of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. reported by Doğan News Agency

Busts of Atatürk have been attacked by protesters in the southeastern provinces of Hakkari, Batman and Mardin during clashes between security forces and locals. The incident came after clashes in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır over a statute of Mahsum Korkmaz (Egîd), one of the PKK’s founders, which left demonstrator Mehdi Taşkın dead.

A soldier, Uğur İnal, being deployed to the area was also killed in a gun accident.

On the night of Aug. 19, protesters blocked the road and lit a fire in Hakkari, throwing Molotov cocktails at security forces. Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the protesters, while some protesters burnt a burst of Atatürk in the garden of the Hakkari Anatolian High School.

The incidents continued in Hakkari on Aug. 20 with a group of people attempting to throw stones at an Atatürk statue in the city center. The police put armored vehicles around the statue and used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannon against the protesters.

A bust of the republic’s found was also subjected to an attack in Batman. Unknown people removed it from the garden of the Vali Zeki Şanal Secondary School and fled while others erected barricades in the Yavuz Selim Quarter and lit a fire in the street.

In Mardin, a group of people, including mayors from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), gathered in the party building on Aug. 19. The group started to march holding pictures of Korkmaz in protest at the removal of the legendary fighter’s statue in Diyarbakır’s Lice district. Police subsequently fired tear gas and deployed water cannon on the group, sparking clashes that continued until the early hours of the day.

Korkmaz’s statue was opened on the anniversary of the first attacks by PKK militants in Hakkari’s Şemdinli district and Siirt’s Eruh district in 1984, in a cemetery that was opened last year in Lice for PKK members. Korkmaz was killed by security forces in 1986.

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır lawmaker Nursel Aydoğan and the co-chairs of the DBP, Emine Ayna and Kamuran Yüksek, attended the statue’s opening ceremony on Aug. 16.

August/21/2014

Diyarbakir, inauguration of a controversial statue of a former commander of the PKK

August 18, 2014 By administrator

The statue of a former commander of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who planned the first attacks of the armed insurgency against the Turkish authorities launched in 1984, was inaugurated Sunday in the southeast of Turkey.
The sculpture in the likeness of Mahsum Korkmaz, who was killed in 1986, was erected Yolacti village in the province Kurdish majority Diyarbakir (south-eastern Turkey) in a cemetery reserved for PKK fighters in the presence of responsible (…)

With Peace Process in Muddle, PKK Gets More Recruits

July 11, 2014 By administrator

By RUDAW yesterday at 07:42

Murat Karayilan, a key figure in the Kurdistan Worker’s Communities (KCK) which acts as the PKK’s political wing, has said the deadline for Ankara to act on the peace process is right after the August 10 elections. Photo: AFP

ANKARA, Turkey – Twenty one university students in Turkey are joining the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) movement, saying Ankara has been “fooling Kurds” with a peace process it has done nothing to advance.

Speaking on behalf of fellow students, Leila Nusaybein said they were declaring allegiance to the group after losing faith in Ankara’s sincerity toward the peace process, and because PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan remained jailed in his Turkish island prison.

The announcement by the students, who come from 13 different universities, comes as PKK fighters are expected to continue withdrawing from Turkey to bases in the Qandil Mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan by this autumn.

“The process will be over unless they make a move right after the elections. Those moves may not come on the first day after the election, but if they make no move in one or two weeks, everyone should know that the process is over,” Karayilan said.

In its latest move, the Turkish government has proposed a “Draft Law to End Terrorism and Strengthen Social Integration,” which aims to legalize direct and indirect talks between the government and top PKK officials, including Ocalan. The bill would also disarm PKK militia fighters and grant them amnesty from prosecution.

Because Turkey designates the PKK as a terrorist organization, talks can easily be categorized as a crime under Turkey’s existing anti-terror legislation. Ocalan has welcomed the draft as an “historical development.”

Turkey’s Kurdish peace process is seen as key to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s presidential hopes in the August polls. He has exhausted his three permitted terms as prime minister and is therefore eyeing the presidency.

Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence for treason since 1999, is still perceived as a partner in the Turkish-Kurdish peace process, and plays a monumental role inside his highly extended and organized movement.

PKK kidnaps two officers, wounds nine others in east Turkey

April 28, 2014 By administrator

April 27, 2014, Sunday/ 19:35:49/ TODAYSZAMAN .COM/ ISTANBUL

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) kidnapped two specialist sergeants in eastern Turkey on Saturday and wounded nine members of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in a southeastern province on Sunday.

The kidnapping took place when a group of terrorist PKK supporters blocked a road heading to the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Saturday in protest of the construction of a gendarmerie outpost. With the blockade, the armed group, which took part in the protest along with civilians, caused a traffic backup as a long line of 90-100 vehicles formed.

While checking the IDs of passengers on a bus, the armed group noticed two unarmed sergeants who were heading to Diyarbakır. The armed group forcefully abducted the two officers, prompting the Turkish military to launch an operation in the area to secure their release.

In another incident, the Turkish military said in a statement on Saturday, a group of PKK terrorists opened fire from the Iraqi side of the border on a military unit positioned in a mountainous area in rural parts of Şemdinli, a district of the southeastern province of Hakkari. The security forces returned fire at the PKK group, which fled the area. A military attack helicopter and a reconnaissance plane were sent to the area.

This is the not the first time the PKK or groups affiliated with the terrorist organization have kidnapped civilians or soldiers in the region, highlighting the fragile nature of the ongoing settlement process aimed at ending the decades-old Kurdish dispute and armed conflict.

The PKK declared a cease-fire last year, but halted the withdrawal of its forces from Turkey months later. The halting of the withdrawal has drawn the “peace talks” between the Turkish state and the terrorist group to the brink of deadlock. The PKK’s reckless activities throughout the region are fueling fears of a revival of clashes.

Tensions ensued on Sunday in Diyarbakır’s Lice district when PKK-affiliated protesters again rallied against the construction of the gendarmerie outpost. Clashes broke out between protesters and security forces, leaving nine soldiers wounded when a stun grenade thrown by a protester exploded.

The wounded soldiers were immediately rushed to a nearby hospital. The soldiers are not in critical condition.

Also on Sunday, the parents and relatives of 15 high school students launched a sit-in protest in Diyarbakır, claiming that the students had been kidnapped by the PKK.

According to news reports, members of the terrorist group took the students on a picnic on April 23 but the students have not returned to their homes since then. Erol Böçkün, the father of 15-year-old M.S.B., said that he has no idea where his son is. “They may have killed my son. How can they kidnap a 15-year-old boy to recruit [him to the PKK]?” he asked.

Böçkün also claimed that some pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy (BDP) officials spoke to PKK members to persuade them to allow the kidnapped boys to return to their families, but the terrorist group refused to comply.