News / Turkey

Turkey operations against PKK end in one Kurdish-dominated area in southeast

Tuesday, 19 January 2016 5:08 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 19 January 2016 5:09 PM ]

The file photo shows Turkish soldiers near the Turkey-Syrian border post in Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey. (AFP)

Turkey’s large-scale military operations against the militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have ended in one of the areas in the mainly Kurdish-dominated southeast, the prime minister says.

The operation in the town of Silopi has ended “successfully” and a 24-hour curfew has now been eased, Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters on Tuesday during a visit to British capital, London, televised live in Turkey.

Turkish troops backed by gendarmerie forces conducted a string of counter-terrorism operations in Silopi, in the nearby town of Cizre and in Diyarbakir’s Sur District, to eradicate the PKK militants who set up barricades, dug trenches and primed explosives to keep Turkish security forces away.

The military is still fighting militants linked to the PKK in Cizre and Sur.

The military has been engaged in the campaign against the PKK in its southern border region over the past months.

The Turkish forces also have been conducting military operations against the positions of the PKK in northern Iraq.

Residents walk along roads damaged from fighting in the Kurdish town of Silopi, southeastern Turkey, near the border with Iraq, January 19, 2016. (AFP Photo)

The Turkish offensive began in the wake of a deadly bombing in July 2015 in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. More than 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, in turn prompting the Turkish military operations.

The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey said recently that as many as 162 civilians have been killed in the restive regions placed under a government-imposed curfew since August 2015.

The PKK, seeking autonomy in Turkey’s southeast, launched its militancy against Turkey in 1984. So far, more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

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