Turkey’s military carries out its first strike on Kurdish militants since a 2013 peace deal as Ankara also bombed Isis positions in Syria

Turkey launched overnight airstrikes against several positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s party (PKK) in northern Iraq for the first time in four years, the country’s government has said.



The air raids put an end to a two-year ceasefire between the Turkish government and the PKK, severely endangering the already fragile peace process started in 2012 in an attempt to end a bloody conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people over 30 years.

According to the office of the acting prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, the bombs hit several PKK targets in northern Iraq, including shelters, bunkers, storage facilities and the Qandil mountains, where the PKK’s high command is based.

Turkish fighter jets also targeted Islamic State positions in Syria for the second night in a row, the statement said. In addition to the air raids, the Turkish military carried out artillery attacks against Isis in Syria and the PKK in northern Iraq.

“Strikes were carried out on targets of the Daesh (Isis) terrorist group in Syria and the PKK terrorist group in northern Iraq,” the prime minister’s office said, adding that all anti-terrorism operations were “carried out indiscriminately against all terrorist groups”.

In a major tactical shift this week, Turkey decided to take a more active role in the US-led coalition fighting against Isis, agreeing to open its airbases to allied forces as well as carrying out its own air raids. It is the first time Turkish fighter jets have entered Syrian airspace to attack Isis militants on Syrian soil. Previous air raids were conducted from the Turkish side of the border, according to the Turkish government.

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Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Davutoğlu said almost 600 terrorism suspects had been detained in coordinated raids on Friday and Saturday, including people with alleged links to Isis and to the PKK. “I say it one more time: when it comes to public order, Turkey is a democratic state of law and everyone who breaks that law will be punished,” he said.

In a first reaction to the attacks on their camps, the PKK leadership said that the ceasefire with Ankara had lost all meaning: “The ceasefire has been unilaterally ended by the Turkish state and the Turkish military,” said a statement on the PKK website on Saturday. “The truce has no meaning any more after these intense airstrikes by the occupant Turkish army.”

The group said the fallout and consequences of the overnight attacks would be disclosed later.

Mesut Yeğen, a historian on the Kurdish issue, said that it was too early to say that the peace process was over. “So far the PKK has not given the order to fighters on the ground to launch a counterattack, but it is clear that the peace process has been weakened substantially,” he said.

It was unlikely that either the Turkish military or the PKK wanted an all-out confrontation: “As long as the attacks remain limited to the air strikes, there is hope that the peace process will continue,” Yeğen said.

The double raids on both the PKK and Isis came after a wave of violence swept across the country last week. On Monday, a suicide bomber killed 31 Kurdish and Turkish activists in the southern border town of Suruç, in an attack that Turkish officials blamed on Isis.



After the bombing, tension has risen to dangerous levels in the predominantly Kurdish south-east, where many have long accused the Turkish government of directly supporting Isis against the Kurdish struggle in Syria, a charge Ankara vehemently denies.

Later in the week the People’s Defence Force (HPG) – the armed wing of the PKK – claimed responsibility for the killing of two police officers in Ceylanpınar, a town on the Syrian border, in retaliation for the Suruç bomb.

A policeman was killed in Diyarbakır on Thursday, while another officer was kidnapped there on Friday night. Violent protests against the ruling AKP’s failed Syria policies and their stalling of the Kurdish peace process have erupted in several cities all over Turkey.

In two subsequent anti-terror raids across Turkey, hundreds were detained on Friday and Saturday, including people with suspected links to Isis and to the outlawed PKK.

Ahmet Yildiz, a farmer and shepherd in Şemdinli, a small town nestled between the Iranian and Iraqi borders, said the sound of fighter jets kept his family up most of Friday night. Late on Friday, PKK fighters attacked a local police station, wounding three officers.

“The planes are all around in the mountains,” Yildiz said. “I bought a herd of sheep, because I believed that peace was finally going to come. But now I don’t know what will happen, if I can take the sheep up on the pastures. I am very sad; we all are.”

The leftist Peoples’ Democratic party said it was time to stabilise the peace process. “We underline again how very much Turkey needs peace and a solution [to the Kurdish issue]. It is possible to solve our societal, historical and political problems through mutual dialogue, negotiations and through the development of democracy,” a statement said on Saturday. “The increase and perpetuation of violence will not bring a lasting, democratic and egalitarian solution for any side, or any part of society.”



