The Turkish military claims to have killed more than 1,196 PKK fighters in the airstrikes, though the group has heavily disputed the number.
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He warned the terrorist organization PKK had moved towards civil war as it steps up its attacks on Turkish security forces.
Two ministers from Turkey’s interim government resigned Tuesday while fighting between Kurdish rebels and government forces continues in the country’s southeast.
But relations have soured amid a sudden flare-up of violence between Kurdish rebels and Turkey’s military and a failure of any of the parties to strike a coalition agreement, which has led to new elections being called for November. 1. The Kurdish town of Cizre, which earlier declared autonomy, was placed under curfew for eight days and 22 civilians are believed to have been killed.
Dogan and Konca were the first two legislators from the party to take ministerial posts in what was widely seen as a hopeful development in Turkey’s fraught relationship with its Kurdish minority.
“Prime Minister [Ahmet Davutoglu] accepted their resignations”, the PM’s office said.
Davutoglu said Turkey was aware of intelligence agencies operating in northern Iraq and their aims. The government later announced that academic Beril Dedeoglu had been picked to replace Konca and that engineer Cuneyd Duzyol would replace Dogan.
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Opinion polls suggest the HDP will again clear the 10 percent threshold for representation in parliament, reducing the AKP’s hopes of securing an overall majority on its second try. The HDP, however, has succeeded in widening its support base, bringing in non-Kurds opposed to Erdogan and disillusioned with the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). There are also reports that PKK is threatening to seize the assets of anyone voting for any party other than the HDP and to try those people in its kangaroo courts.
