At least ten customs officials have been kidnapped by suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in eastern Van province, the Turkish military said Sunday.
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According to the Van Governor’s Office, the officials and driver had been missing since Friday. This brings the number of customs officials who have been unaccounted for to 20.
The clashes erupted just after dawn when PKK militants attacked a detachment of soldiers guarding a hydro-electric dam with rockets and long-range gunfire in the Kulp district of Diyarbakir.
“The explosion hit an army convoy near the Takali village in Şemdinli sub-district of Hakkari province on Monday”, the army said in a statement, blaming the PKK for the attack.
In the WSJ article, reporter Ayla Albayrak continuously refers to PKK fighters in the flash point city of Silopi, precariously situated where the Iraqi, Turkish and Syrian borders meet, as militants, rather than terrorists.
The PKK has been staging daily attacks against the Turkish armed forces as the military keeps up air raids and operations against its strongholds in southeast Turkey as well as northern Iraq. Turkish officials have vehemently denied claims that civilians have also been targeted.
The leader of Turkey’s largest Kurdish political party called for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Saturday to end its fighting against Ankara, after a wave of violence.
HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas says the PKK must declare a unilateral ceasefire “without ifs or buts”.
“There is no alternative for us”, said Demirtas.
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More than a hundred people – mostly soldiers and police – have been killed since July in renewed conflict between the outlawed Kurdish group and the security forces, which has wrecked a 2 1/2-year-old peace process with the Kurds.
