“They can not stay in this position”.
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Among the PKK casualties were at least five commanders.
Yesterday evening militants fired a rocket at an armoured vehicle in the town of Cizre, killing a police officer and wounding another, security sources said.
The Gatestone Institute reports: “Had the Turkish military attacked the PKK alone, and not in addition to attacking ISIS, it would probably have received widespread worldwide condemnation”.
“These 13 people were killed while fighting Daesh“, the deceased’s father Fahrettin Oner said, using the Arabic name for the extremist militia organization.
Last month, that ceasefire effectively collapsed, leaving both sides locked in an escalating cycle of violence.
Several hundred people took to the streets of Paris to denounce what they deem to be anti-Kurdish policies by the Turkish government.
The militant group has said the air strikes are an attempt to “crush” the Kurdish political movement and create an “authoritarian, hegemonic system” in Turkey.
“It’s not smart for Turkey to do this”, Aaron Stein, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, said of Turkey’s twin military campaigns. The US classifies the PKK as a terrorist group, but in Syria provides air support to the Syrian Kurdish fighters, who are closely aligned with the PKK.
The prospect of Kurdish attempts for autonomy rank higher on the threat scale than ISIS to the Turkish government, Seckin added.
The battle for Kobani last year in Syria, which ended in victory for the Kurds after a month long American-led air campaign, drew Kurdish fighters from around the world and fanned the flames of pan-Kurdish nationalism. Two days later, rebels from the PKK killed two Turkish policemen whom they accused of collaborating with ISIS.
The HDP has played an important role in the peace process with regular visits to PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in his jail on Imrali island south of Istanbul.
Cemil Bayik told the BBC he believed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted IS to succeed to prevent Kurdish gains.
It is abundantly clear that the failure of ISIS (Islamic State – IS) to erase the fighting capabilities of the Kurds in Northern Syria became a serious issue for President Erdogan of Turkey. Kurds even point at the government for allowing IS to grow inside and outside of Turkey.
The upsurge in clashes comes at a time of political uncertainty in Turkey, where efforts to forge a coalition government after an inconclusive June election have yet to yield fruit and with a snap election emerging as a possibility.
Turkey’s military has launched airstrikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq and in southeastern Turkey while the rebels have carried out numerous attacks on police and soldiers.
He said the government must halt security operations and declare itself ready for dialogue.
“Peace is urgent. Mr. Davutoğlu, we are not requesting this from you”. Demirtas addressed his comments to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, saying, “A coalition may be formed or not but peace is urgent”.
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According to the Turkish General Staff’s statement on its official website, the attack took place in the province’s Beytussebap district. Especially with Kurds in Syria having strong cultural and communal bonds with their brethren in Turkey, any change in the latter immediately leaves its effect among the Kurdish population in Syria.
