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As armed clashes continued in the southeast of Turkey for the sixth day, the Turkish army said in a statement Sunday that at least 110 Kurdish fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, have been killed as part of its major operation in the majority-Kurdish region.
The operation is taking place in three Kurdish towns Cizre, Silopi and Sur, along the Turkish borders with Syria and Iraq, where Ankara claims the PKK has been intensifying its presence. A curfew has been imposed on Cizre and Silopi since Dec. 14, the first day of the operation.
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War in #Turkey is unrelenting... This Kurdish boy reportedly shot dead by cops in Cizre yesterday was only 11yrs old pic.twitter.com/WzZCfRRiBV
— IrmakYenisehirlioglu (@Irmak_Ye)
December 16, 201
The operation involves some 10,000 heavily armed troops backed by tanks have been deployed in the southeast region.
Meanwhile, protests took place Sunday in Istanbul and in Diyarbakir, the de facto capital and largest city in the Kurdish southeast,as protesters demanded an end to the military operations. Police reportedly fired tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse the crowds.
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Security sources and residents said around 300 houses in Cizre had been damaged by the clashes and undetonated mortar shells lay inside buildings.
Electricity was cut in many neighborhoods in Silopi as power transformers were damaged. Food and drinking water were running scarce, residents told Reuters news agency.
Kurdish school child draws a partly evacuated Kurdish town under #Turkey security assault via @ciwaan pic.twitter.com/1Sui75IToN
— IrmakYenisehirlioglu (@Irmak_Ye)
December 14, 201
The operation comes as monitor group International Crisis Group said in a new report on Turkey that the urban battles have "given the conflict a new, unpredictable momentum," and further urged Turkey and the PKK to return to the negotiating table.
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"Turkey faces a critical choice: to advance its military strategy against the PKK in a fight that is bound to be protracted and inconclusive, or to resume peace talks," the nongovernmental think tank said.
The latest escalation between the Turkish state and the PKK comes less than six months after Ankara launched a comprehensive aerial operation against PKK strongholds and bases in northern Iraq.
The decades-long conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK have so far claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people, most of them Kurds.
The current government of President Tayyip Recep Erdogan launched a peace process and talks with the PKK’s leader Abdullah Ocalan in 2013 that included a cease-fire. However, violence was renewed this summer when Turkey launched its operation against the guerrilla group.
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