Two soldiers and 13 terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were killed on Wednesday during an operation against the terrorist group in Çukurca, a district of Hakkari province, news reports said on Thursday.
Two soldiers and 13 terrorists were killed during the clashes on the first and second day of the operation, while four soldiers were injured, reports said on Thursday.
In related developments, three PKK militants and four others aiding them were detained on Wednesday in Doğubayazıt, a district in the eastern province of Ağrı.
The Ağrı Governor’s Office said that acting on a tip-off that a group of terrorists were driving to the Tendürek region, teams from the Ağrı Police Department stopped a vehicle near the Iğdır junction and detained three PKK terrorists — two women and a man — and four others who police accuse of aiding and abetting the terrorists. Reports said the terrorists were planning a violent attack in the country’s east.
Police also found a rocket launcher and organizational documents belonging to the terrorist group.
The PKK has escalated its terrorist attacks recently, targeting not only military personnel but also civilians. On Thursday, the daughter of a civilian killed in the eastern province of Tunceli in a PKK attack said there can be no peace achieved by shedding blood.
Devrim Kıt, speaking at the home where her mother, Fadime Acar — who was killed in the Tunceli attack, which claimed the lives of seven in total — used to live, said: “I protest the killing of innocent people. What was the sin of my mother? She was slain while walking near the place where the PKK terrorist attack took place.”
The assault occurred when the PKK detonated a car loaded with explosives as military vehicles were passing through the Atatürk neighborhood of Tunceli. The PKK intended to target Brig. Gen. Metin Akkaya, but instead killed six soldiers and civilian Acar.
The remains of three of the six soldiers and of Acar were sent to their hometowns for burial, while the bodies of the other victims were taken to Ankara for positive identification.
In a similar attack last week, 10 soldiers were killed and 60 wounded when a group of terrorists fired rocket-propelled grenades at a military convoy traveling between the eastern provinces of Bingöl and Muş.
Şirinyer bombers sentenced to hundreds of years
There were also developments on Thursday regarding a 2007 terrorist attack. Three terrorists detained after a bombing that killed one person and injured 10 others in İzmir’s Şirinyer neighborhood were given two consecutive life sentences, in addition to 262 years in jail and a TL 2,000 monetary penalty each. Fırat Yağmakan was given an additional six years for stealing a motorcycle.
One suspect, Meyase Turan, was acquitted. The court issued capture warrants for Murat Yağmakan and Ziver Turan, who were standing trial while out on bail.
Kevser Eraslan, whose 29-year-old son Atilla Eraslan died in the blast, spoke to the journalists, in tears. “This trial had been going on for five years. The murderers were given the harshest sentence possible. We relived the pain every time we came here to the courthouse. My son will not come back. He died once, but we die every day. They got the punishment they deserved,” she said, adding that she was satisfied with the sentences.
The bomb attack occurred on Oct. 2, 2007, in Şirinyer, a neighborhood in Buca, a district of İzmir. TNT explosives planted in front of a shopping mall claimed the life of Atilla Eraslan, who was employed at a carpet store inside the mall. It was established shortly after that the main suspects — Fırat and Murat Yağmakan — and Ziver Turan, were PKK militants who had trained at the terrorist organization’s camps.
Listed as a terrorist organization by the US, the EU and Turkey, the PKK has been waging a war against the Turkish state for almost three decades. This year saw one of the bloodiest campaigns in the 28-year-old conflict since the capture of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, in 1999.
