The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is planning to carry out large-scale attacks in the country’s Southeast and has sent members dressed in civilian clothes to city centers to prepare for the attacks.
When security sources prevented the PKK from infiltrating Hakkari’s Şemdinli district, they found out that the terrorist organization is planning to carry out terrorist attacks in several provinces in the Southeast, with the province of Şırnak and its districts as the primary target.
According to intelligence sources, the PKK and Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organization that includes the PKK, have sent members dressed in civilian attire to city centers to examine public buildings in particular.
An intelligence report prepared by the Police Department’s Intelligence Unit has been sent to all security units across Turkey, warning of PKK plans for attacks and including detailed information about the methods the PKK are expected to follow. The report says the PKK will step up efforts to infiltrate city centers, moving from rural areas in the upcoming days. It adds that hundreds of terrorists at the PKK camps in the Kandil Mountains as well as the provinces of Hakkari and Şırnak await attack orders. According to the report, the goal of the PKK is to cause a conflict between civilians and security forces.
Security forces have also underlined that recent remarks by Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir, who said “the only way out is to establish an autonomous Kurdistan in Turkey, just as it is the case in the entire Middle East, in Iraq and Iran. There will also be an autonomous Kurdistan in Syria,” overlap with the new strategy of the PKK.
There have also been claims that the PKK wants to hang its flag in one of the districts in the Southeast, if even for a short time.
In the meantime, two PKK terrorists, Rahşan Ö. and Rodi Ş., who surrendered to security forces on July 2, have told security forces about a recent change of posts within the PKK.
According to their statements, a PKK operative in Hakurk, northern Iraq, was removed from his post two months ago and was replaced by a terrorist with the code name Kemal Panzer, the former PKK leader in Amanos. The PKK turned-informants said Panzer began to hold meetings in the region after assuming his post and that another terrorist, with the code name Kerim, came to the region on June 27 and announced that terrorists with the code names Ferhat, Nermin and Numan would be responsible for the PKK’s Şemdinli front.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and US, has been waging a bloody campaign in Turkey’s Southeast since 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed to date in the decades-long conflict.
Turkish security forces have dealt a heavy blow to the PKK this week in large-scale operations conducted in Hakkari’s Şemdinli district. The military has destroyed depots of food, munitions and medicine belonging to the terrorist group in Şemdinli and killed a total of 39 PKK terrorists since the operations began last week.
