Police officer dies three weeks after PKK attack in southeast

KOCAELİ

AA photo

A police officer who succumbed to his injuries 21 days after being wounded in clashes withthe outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been buried in his hometown Kocaeli, in northwestern Turkey.

Mustafa Yavaş, 42, was wounded in clashes after PKK militants opened fire at a police convoy in the southeastern province of Hakkari on Nov. 10. He succumbed to his injuries on Dec. 1 at the Gülhane Military Medical Academy in Ankara, the state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Yavaş’s funeral was held in Kocaeli’s Gölcük district on Dec. 2, with his father Ahmet, his mother Şaziye, his wife Ayşe and his three children Ahmet Esat, Esilay and Zülal in tears.

Turkey has ramped up operations against PKK militants in the east and southeast of the country in recent months with ground operations, aerial campaigns and military curfews.

In the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, a curfew was declared starting from 5 a.m. on Dec. 2 in the central Sur district, where the prominent lawyer Tahir Elçi was shot dead during a press statement on Nov. 28.

A comprehensive anti-terror operation backed by military helicopters was launched on Dec. 2 as an indeterminate curfew was imposed on all six of Sur’s neighborhoods: Cevatpaşa, Fatihpaşa, Dabanoğlu, Hasırlı, Cemal Yılmaz and Savaş.