PKK attacks police and gendarmerie stations: 2 officers injured

HATAY-HAKKARİ

Police fire tear gas at a group of protesters in the southeastern province of Hakkari. DHA photo

Two different groups of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants organized simultaneous attacks on the district police office and a gendarmerie station in the Erzin district of the southern province of Hatay yesterday.

Two police officers who were guarding the office building were injured. 

The incidents took place around 11:30 p.m. Two different groups of PKK members simultaneously attacked the police office building in the İsalı neighborhood and the gendarmerie station in the Hürriyet neighborhood of Erzin with long-barreled weapons. Police officers guarding the governor’s residence and soldiers at the gendarmerie station responded immediately to the attacks. During the attack on the police offices, two police officers guarding the building were injured. In both attacks, the terrorists escaped in vehicles and disappeared, Doğan news agency reported. 

The injured police officers, Zafer Asay, 40, and Yusuf Özbey, 40, were first sent to Erzin State Hospital. After receiving first aid there, they were transferred to Osmaniye State Hospital. They are both reported to be in good condition. 

After the attacks, one of the vehicles used by the PKK members was found abandoned. The entrances and exits to the district were closed and security measures were taken. A large-scale operation to find and arrest the PKK members is ongoing, and the neighboring provinces and districts have been warned to be on the lookout for them. 

On Aug. 13, in the Moşe and Güzelkaya neighborhoods in the village of Bağlar in the southeastern province of Hakkari, PKK members laid a mine on the road and detonated it as a group of military vehicles was passing by. After the blast, a short clash took place between security forces and the PKK members. No casualties were reported. An operation to find the PKK members and render them ineffective has begun in the area. 

Militants killed

Two PKK militants were killed in a firefight near Gültepe village of the eastern province of Van late yesterday. A group of militants trying to infiltrate Gültepe village were spotted by soldiers who were stationed there to guard the Özalp district chairman Naif Önder from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), who was staying in the village for the night. Önder had previously received threats from the PKK to resign from his post.

PKK releases workers

PKK members who had set fire to 11 trucks that were being used for airport construction between the villages of Köprücük and Kadı in Hakkari’s Yüksekova district released 11 captured workers after holding them for about five and a half hours. The workers were released around 7:30 p.m. near the village of Küçükdere near Cilo Mountain, 25 kilometers from Yüksekova. They returned to Yüksekova in a truck and reported to the gendarmerie station, where an investigation into the incident has been launched. 

Aug 15 protest

Also on Aug. 13, a group of demonstrators made barricades and lit a fire on the Çevre Yolu street in Hakkari, claiming to be observing the Aug. 15 anniversary of the PKK’s first demonstration. The group shouted slogans in support of the PKK, and police intervened in the demonstration with gas bombs and water cannon. When the demonstrators responded with stones and Molotov cocktails, a clash began on the street. The demonstrators also responded to police gas bombs with their own blast bombs, Anatolia news agency reported. 

The outlawed PKK launched its first armed insurgency on Aug. 15, 1984, with armed attacks on Eruh and Şemdinli. During these attacks, one gendarmerie soldier was killed, and seven soldiers, two policemen and three civilians were injured. These attacks were followed by a PKK raid on a police station in Siirt two days later.