NewspaperYeni Akit, which is closely aligned with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist AKP party, based its accusation on an article in the WSJ also over the weekend that discussed a rapidly growing youth organization belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK: a designated terrorist outfit by Turkey but also the U.S. Semdinli is near Turkey’s borders with Iraq and Iran.
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Recognized as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, the PKK waged an armed separatist war against Turkey for over 30 years resulting in more than 40,000 casualties, but maintained a rocky ceasefire with Ankara since 2013 until last month.
It is not possible to independently verify the death toll for PKK militants.
The Turkish security forces staged air strikes against PKK targets in Qandil Mountain in northern Iraq, leaving 34 rebels dead, read the statement released by the Turkish General Staff, Xinhua reported.
According to figures published Saturday by the state-run Anatolia news agency before the latest incidents, 812 PKK militants have been killed in the campaign while 56 members of the Turkish security forces have lost their lives.
The comments were the clearest call yet from Selahattin Demirtas – the charismatic young leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) – for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to agree an unconditional cease-ire.
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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.
