PKK clashes spread to towns amid curfews

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

Clashes between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish security forces have spread to towns in Turkey’s southeast, with curfews declared in the Lice and Silvan districts of Diyarbakır province.As violence continues, news of fatalities on both sides also continues to come. One person was killed and one wounded in the Silvan district of Diyarbakır on Aug. 18, where clashes between the Turkish military and PKK militants raged.One soldier was killed and three others were wounded in clashes with PKK militants in the Lice district of Diyarbakır on Aug. 18 after the gendarmerie forces launched an operation to seize PKK members who had closed the road between Diyarbakır and neighboring Bingöl province, the Turkish General Staff announced in a statement.The wounded soldiers were taken to a university hospital in Diyarbakır as Cobra helicopters were deployed to the conflict zone, the statement added.Meanwhile, in an area between the eastern province of Ardahan’s Göle district and Erzurum’s Şenkaya district, a village guard, identified as 42-year-old Yakup Aktürk, succumbed to his injuries after being wounded together with two fellow village guards after PKK members opened fire on them on Aug. 17. The village guards were reaching the area where PKK members had killed a bus driver who attempted to avoid an illegal checkpoint set up by the terror organization. Aktürk was a father six.One person was killed and one was captured in an operation in Diyarbakır’s Silvan district against the PKK’s youth wing, the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H).Security forces had been conducting an operation when around 700 locals blocked roads with trenches and barricades during the curfew declared by the Diyarbakır Governor’s Office on Aug. 18 starting at 1 a.m. and ongoing until a second notice was given. A curfew was also announced by the Diyarbakır governorate for the province’s Lice district between 9 p.m. on Aug. 17 and 7 a.m. on Aug. 18.Two militants were wounded as they defended their positions against security forces with long-barreled guns. The locals were taken to a university hospital in Diyarbakır but one of them later succumbed to injuries.The dead man was identified as Serhat Bilen by Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır deputy Ziya Pir.The Democratic Regions’ Party (DBP) defined the security forces’ operations as an “attack on the people,” calling on all those living nearby to come to Silvan to defend the town from the police and the army and “prevent a possible massacre.”Responding to the call, a group of deputies from the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) departed for Silvan as part of the Women’s Freedom Assembly (KÖM).Around 10 days ago, YDG-H members started to dig trenches and block streets in Silvan to prevent security forces from entering the district. On Aug. 15, the DBP, with the participation of about 300 people, also declared autonomy in the district.On Aug. 18, PKK members stopped a wedding convoy in the eastern province of Tunceli, after which they propagandized for the outlawed organization before setting three cars alight and releasing the group.