A vehicle bomb exploded Monday outside the provincial headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the eastern Turkish city of Van, wounding more than 50 people, including four police, local authorities said.
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Turkey should revive a peace process to end three-decades of conflict with Kurdish militants, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan said, in comments relayed by his brother on Monday.
A Turkish official said 48 people including two police officers were wounded, two critically.
Turkey’s battle against the PKK resumed with a new intensity after a ceasefire collapsed previous year and with attempts by Kurdish groups in Syria’s war to carve out an autonomous Kurdish enclave on Turkey’s border.
Erdogan said that if the Turkish parliament decides to restore the death penalty, no one has the right to criticize this, since decisions of the parliament reflect the will of people.
In separate airstrike Sunday, Turkish jets struck Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, killing 13 militants.
“It is the binding duty in front of our nation to finish off the organisation called Daesh (IS) in Syria and ensure it is unable to carry out actions inside our country”, Erdogan said in a televised message for the upcoming Eid al-Adha Islamic holiday. The government said in a statement that Turkey removed the mayors to stop local governments from aiding terrorism with public property and funds.
Protests also erupted at four municipalities in Batman Province, where police deployed tear gas and water cannons, and in the Suruc district of Sanliurfa Province, the paper reported.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the suspension of the mayors, saying it was a long-overdue move. You don’t have such an authority.
The latest step was taken under the state of emergency imposed in the wake of the coup, with the ousted mayors, who were elected in the 2014 local elections, replaced by state-appointed trustees.
Naci Agbal said the government “under the principles of a state of law” would deal with those who supported or financed terrorists.
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The visit by Mehmet, his first in two years, came on the eighth day of a hunger strike by 50 Kurdish politicians and activists demanding news on Ocalan’s health after the failed July 15 military coup.
