AFP
Turkish jets have bombed Kurdish rebel targets in the southeast of the country in the first such strikes against the separatists since an increasingly fragile 2013 ceasefire, officials said yesterday.
Air force jets struck positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) late on Monday in the village of Daglica, located near the border with Iraq, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
In a separate incident also on Monday, Turkish attack helicopters struck suspected PKK targets around the village of Geyiksuyu in eastern Turkey following raids by the rebels.
The PKK confirmed the attacks yesterday, saying that they were in breach of a ceasefire which has been in place since March 2013.
“The occupying Turkish army carried out air strikes against our forces for the first time yesterday (Monday) in almost two years,” the armed wing of the PKK said on its website.
It said its fighters had not suffered any casualties during the air bombardment, which targeted two PKK bases.
The strikes took place amid heightened tensions between Turkey and the PKK over Ankara’s refusal to allow Turkish Kurds from leaving the country to fight against Islamic State (IS) militants besieging the key Syrian border town of Kobane.
Some 30 people were killed and 360 wounded earlier this month when Kurds took to the streets in several cities across Turkey to vent their anger at the government’s lack of military support for Kurds defending Kobane.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the unrest on the “dark forces” seeking to sabotage the delicate peace process with the PKK to end 30 years of violence that has claimed at least 40,000 lives.
The air strikes came a day before the October 15 deadline given by the PKK’s overall leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence in an island prison on the sea of Marmara, for a roadmap to salvage the flagging peace process.
But Nihat Ali Ozcan, security analyst at Ankara-based TEPAV think tank, said that he doubted the latest incidents would put an end to the peace process.
Turkey, a Nato member, has tightened security on its volatile border after the escalating fighting in Kobane sparked the exodus of 200,000 refugees.
Kurds say they do not want Turkish troops in Kobane but want Turkey to allow its territory to be used for passing weapons to Kurdish fighters defending the Syrian town, an idea Ankara has so far rejected.
One of the PKK chiefs said on Saturday that all fighters had been called back to Turkey and warned that the peace process was in danger of collapse.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking at a news conference in Ankara, made no mention of the air strikes but said that “the armed forces have taken necessary measures” after PKK attacks at military posts in the Daglica region.
“We cannot tolerate or make concessions” in the face of attacks by the militant group, Davutoglu said.
But in an earlier speech to his ruling party lawmakers yesterday, he said the government was still committed to making peace with the Kurds.
“The peace process is not linked to Kobane. It’s not linked to any development that takes place outside our borders,” Davutoglu said.
