One police officer killed in anti-PKK operation in Diyarbakır

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

One police officer was killed on Nov. 5 during an operation against outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the Silvan district of the southeastern Diyarbakır province where a curfew was declared.
PKK militants opened fire at anti-riot police officers with a sniper among them firing the shot during operations. 

Police officer Necmi Çakır was injured and taken to the nearby Dicle University Medical School Hospital for treatment but doctors were unable to save him.

Çakır will be laid to rest in his hometown in the Black Sea province of Trabzon after a funeral ceremony in Diyarbakır.

The body of Caner Çelik, the gendarmerie special sergeant killed during an anti-terror operation in the Yüksekova district of the southeastern Hakkari province, meanwhile, was taken out of a hospital in the northeastern province of Kars to be sent to his hometown of Ardahan, a province in Turkey’s northeast.

A symbolic funeral ceremony was held for Çelik outside the hospital on Nov. 5. 

Turkey has beefed up military strikes against the outlawed organization with ground operations and aerial campaigns.

A total 16 PKK militants were killed on Nov. 5 in Yüksekova during ongoing aerial operations, Turkey’s General Staff said in a written statement.

“In addition to 15 terrorists killed on Nov. 4 in the ongoing aerial operation targeting the separatist terrorist organization [PKK] in Yüksekova, 16 more terrorists were killed,” read the statement issued on the General Staff’s website.

The number of people killed during the operation against PKK militants in Diyarbakır’s Silvan district, where a curfew has been in effect in three neighborhoods since 5 a.m. on Nov. 3, has risen to four. 

The people killed during the Silvan operation were identified as Müslüm Tayyar, Sertip Polat, Engin Gezici and İsmet Gezici.

Curfews declared in 22 neighborhoods

Curfews have been declared in separate locations in eastern Turkey, amid ongoing operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

In the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, an indeterminate curfew took effect in 22 neighborhoods in Diyarbakır’s Dicle district at 5 a.m. on Nov. 5, according to a written statement released by the Diyarbakır Governor’s Office.

The governor’s office said an operation would be conducted against PKK militants in mountainous and forest areas between Dicle’s north and the Kurşunlu, Kırkpınar and Kayaş neighborhoods of the district.

The statement also said a curfew in effect since Nov. 4 in several neighborhoods in Diyarbakır’s Lice district was lifted at 5 a.m. on Nov. 5.

In the eastern province of Elazığ, meanwhile, an indeterminate curfew took effect in several neighborhoods in Elazığ’s Arıcak district at 5:45 a.m. on Nov. 5, the Elazığ Govenor’s Office said in a written statement.

Turkish security personnel has stepped up efforts in the fight against PKK militants in the country’s east and southeast, as declaring curfews ahead of anti-terror operations is a pre-emptive measure to prevent civilian deaths.