PKK destroyed 44 health centers, Turkish health minister says

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

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Turkey’s health minister has said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has destroyed 44 healthcare centers since security operations against the group began in the country’s southeast last year.

“Some centers have already been procured and renovation has started in centers that are safe,” Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu said in Ankara on March 10, adding that all efforts were being made for civilians to have access to health services.        

“Hopefully every form of terror will end soon across the country, in every street, and our country will be clear of terrorists,” he added.        

A number of schools in eastern Van province and southeastern Mardin province have also been destroyed by PKK militants, as well as Fetih Pasa Mosque, a historical landmark in southeastern Diyarbakir which was destroyed in December 2015.        

The PKK resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in late July 2015.        

Since then, 290 members of Turkey’s security forces have been killed while 1,250 terrorists have been killed in Diyarbakır, Mardin, southeastern Şırnak province and eastern Muş province.