The announcement was carried on the pro-PKK ANF news site and was brief, with the PKK’s military command blaming the end of the cease-fire on Ankara and accusing the Turkish state and army of having “unilaterally terminated” the agreement with its Friday bombing raids on the separatist group’s training camps and bases straddling the border with Iraq.
The air raids came as Turkish warplanes pounded again Islamic State positions in Syria Friday morning, marking a significant shift in Ankara's position on how to deal with armed groups in Syria and Iraq.
No-fly zone
Turkish media also reported late Friday that Ankara has secured a U.S. agreement for a no-fly zone to be imposed over northern Syria to prevent Syrian air force warplanes and helicopters from striking at rebel groups seeking to topple the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad. But U.S. State Department officials are formally denying any such agreement has been reached.
Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper claimed that a no-fly zone would be established, grounding the Syrian air force. The paper claimed — citing unnamed Turkish government sources — that the no-fly zone would stretch 90 kilometers between the Syrian towns of Marea and Jarabulus to the east.
Iraq operation
A PKK spokesmen said Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish military positions in neighboring Iraq in three successive waves. “Turkish warplanes started bombing our positions near the border, accompanied by heavy artillery shelling," PKK spokesman Bakhtiar Dogan told the AFP news agency. He said the strikes targeted mountain positions in the north of the Dohuk province, part of Iraq's northern autonomous region of Kurdistan.
Turkish warplanes also struck at PKK bases in the Qandil mountains northwest of the Iraqi Kurdish capital, Irbil, which the PKK's political leadership has been using as a safe haven.
The Turkish government has so far declined to confirm strikes on the PKK. But speaking on Turkish television President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the security situation had “got out of control” in recent days and Turkey had to act differently now.
A week and a half ago, an umbrella network of Turkish Kurdish organizations said they considered the truce first agreed in 2012 over and warned that dams and major government construction sites would start being targeted, but the PKK remained silent.
Peace process
Friday night’s announcement by the PKK’s armed wing would appear to end a fragile off-and-on peace process, complicating the politics in the region for the United States in its efforts to roll back the extremists of the Islamic State in neighboring Syria and Iraq. A PKK offshoot, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), has been an on-the-ground ally for Washington in Syria.
The PKK launched a three-decade-long self-rule insurgency in 1984. It moderated its aims subsequently and its imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan has been seeking a resolution to the conflict. But the peace process stalled when the government of President Erdogan refused to intervene militarily in the winter to assist PYD defenders of the Kurdish border town of Kobani when besieged by Islamic State extremists.
Some senior PKK officials have been expressing deep misgivings about the peace process for sometime, and rank and file members have long voiced disdain for the Öcalan-endorsed peace strategy..........http://www.voanews.com/content/kurdish-separatists-end-cease-fire-after-turkish-airstrikes/2878116.html
25/7/15
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Turkish PM slams 'abuse' of peace process as PKK says truce 'meaningless'...
ReplyDeleteThe outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said on July 25 its truce with Ankara had lost all meaning, but Turkey's prime minister refused to describe the escalation as the end of the peace process.
"The truce has no meaning anymore after these intense air strikes by the occupant Turkish army," the PKK said in a statement on its website, after an overnight attack by Turkish warplanes on its camps in northern Iraq.
The air strikes raised questions about the future of the delicate peace process, but Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has refused suggestions that the bid ended.
"The process that we have been continuing under titles such as the solution process or the national unity and brotherhood process is historic and strategic," Davutoğlu said during a press conference on July 25 after the PKK's statement.
Turkish PM also stressed that his government wants the PKK lay down its weapons and "those who abuse the peace process will never be tolerated."
The PKK, who until now have largely observed a ceasefire since 2013, outraged the government by claiming the July 22 shooting dead of two Turkish police at home while they slept.
PKK resumes kidnappings
The murders, which marked an upsurge in violence in Turkey’s southeast, was followed by kidnappings and attacks by the PKK in the past couple of days.
PKK militants bombed a police headquarters in Diyarbakır late July 24, injuring 7 police officers.
On the same day, they also kidnapped a policeman on the highway between Diyarbakır and Bingöl, as well as three health officers in Erzurum. The policeman and three health officers were later released.
The PKK also raided a construction site in Şırnak on July 25, destroying the vehicles and briefly taking 15 workers as hostage.
Before the Turkish govenrmend launched the now-stalled peace bid, the PKK had routinely kidnapped Turkish civil servants, workers and soldiers in the country’s southeast.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-pm-slams-abuse-of-peace-process-as-pkk-says-truce-meaningless.aspx?pageID=238&nID=85916&NewsCatID=352
La Turquie intensifie son offensive contre l’EI et le PKK et arrête 590 jihadistes présumés...
ReplyDeleteLa Turquie intensifie, samedi 25 juillet, son offensive tous azimuts contre le groupe jihadiste État islamique (EI) et les rebelles du Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK), qu’Ankara a promis de poursuivre sans faiblir sur son sol comme à l'étranger.
Après un premier raid mené vendredi, des chasseurs-bombardiers de l'armée de l'air ont à nouveau décollé dans la nuit pour frapper des positions de l'EI sur le territoire syrien. Dans le même temps, les F-16 turcs ont mené vendredi soir de nouveaux raids contre le PKK en bombardant sept objectifs rebelles, abris, hangars et stockages de munitions, dans ses bases arrière des monts Kandil, dans le nord de l'Irak.
D’après l'agence gouvernementale Anatolie, 20 avions ont été engagés dans ces raids menés depuis la base de Diyarbakir (sud-est), qu'ils ont tous rejoints à l'issue de l'opération. L'artillerie a également ouvert le feu sur plusieurs objectifs de l'EI et du PKK dans le cadre de cette opération, selon les autorités.
Près de 600 arrestations
Selon le Premier ministre turc, Ahmet Davutoglu, une nouvelle vague de frappes aériennes et terrestres contre les jihadistes et les rebelles kurdes avait actuellement cours. Le chef du gouvernement a également annoncé l’arrestation par la police de 590 membres présumés de l’EI et du PKK. Ce coup de filet, inédit en Turquie dans les rangs jihadistes et rebelles kurdes, a débuté vendredi matin, impliquant plusieurs milliers de policiers dans tout le pays.............france24.com
Barzani's statement on Turkish airstrikes contradicts Davutoğlu's remarks...
ReplyDeleteHas the Iraqi Kurdish leader expressed "solidarity" or "displeasure" during a phone conversation with Turkey's Prime Minister for Turkish airstrikes in northern Iraq? The two leaders have released contradictory statements.
Kurdish regional President Massud Barzani spoke to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on the telephone early July 25, as Turkish airstrikes bombarded the positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq.
Davutoğlu told journalists during a press conference in Ankara that Barzani had expressed his "solidarity" with the operation when he spoke to him for about an hour.
"Mr. Barzani expressed his solidarity with Turkey again, noting that Turkey's operations against ISIL [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] and the PKK are both justified," Turkish PM said, adding the Kurdish leader also reiterated that he was ready to "contribute to all kinds of cooperation in the fight against terrorism."
Barzani, on the other hand, released a statement after Davutoğlu's speech, noting that he had "expressed his displeasure with the dangerous level the situation has reached" during the phone conversation.
"He requested that the issue not be escalated to that level because peace is the only way to solve problems and years of negotiations are better than one hour of war," Barzani said in his statement....hurriyetdailynews.com
25/7/15
Kurdish militants on Saturday said the conditions for maintaining a ceasefire with Turkey were no longer in place, after Turkish warplanes bombed their stronghold in northern Iraq...
ReplyDelete"The conditions for maintaining the ceasefire... have been eliminated," the People's Defence Forces (HPG), the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said in a statement.
It denounced an "aggression of war" by Turkey and vowed "resistance."
"Faced by these aggressions, we have the right to defend ourselves and to resist," it said. "The defence of our freedoms and democracy is the duty that you have in front of you," the group added.
It described the bombings of the targets in northern Iraq as the "most serious military and political error" by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling party.
The two the sides had until now largely observed a fragile ceasefire since 2013, but the fighting has now thrown the entire process to make peace with the PKK into doubt.
The PKK has for decades waged a deadly insurgency in the southeast of Turkey for self-rule that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.....france24.com
Iraq’s Kurdistan slams Turkish airstrikes on PKK...
ReplyDeleteThe leadership of Iraqi Kurdistan on Saturday condemned Turkish airstrikes against positions of PKK Kurdish rebels in its autonomous region in the north of Iraq, the first comment from the autonomous northern Iraqi region's leadership since Ankara's bombing of PKK rebels and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants began.
Kurdish regional President Massud Barzani spoke to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu on the telephone and “expressed his displeasure with the dangerous level the situation has reached,” a statement said.
“He requested that the issue not be escalated to that level because peace is the only way to solve problems and years of negotiations are better than one hour of war,” Barzani said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Kurdish militants on Saturday said the conditions for maintaining a ceasefire with Turkey were no longer in place after Turkish warplanes bombed their stronghold in northern Iraq.............alarabiya.net
A car bomb attack on a military convoy in south-eastern Turkey has killed two soldiers and injured four others, Turkish officials say...
ReplyDeleteThe explosion late on Saturday happened in the town of Lice in Diyarbakir, the province governor's office said.
The attack came after Turkey bombed Kurdish separatist camps in northern Iraq - the first such strikes since a peace process began in 2012.
No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack....BBC