Top Turkish general visits Syrian border unit for Eid

ŞANLIURFA – Doğan News Agency

AA photo

Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar visited a unit on the border with Syria in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on Sept. 1 on the first day of Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) holiday.

Agriculture and Livestock Minister Ahmet Eşref Fakıbaba accompanied Akar during the visit, greeting soldiers on duty at the 8th border command in the town of Birecik in Gaziantep.

In the early hours of the same day, Akar and Fakıbaba visited the relocated Süleyman Şah Tomb, near the village of Eşme, greeting soldiers who were keeping watch there. 

The Süleyman Şah Tomb, containing the remains and relics of the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, was declared Turkish territory in a treaty signed with France in 1921, when France was the colonial power in Syria. In February, 2015 the contents of the tomb were moved closer to Turkey from their original place some 37 km from the Turkey-Syria border, in an operation in which 44 soldiers guarding the tomb were also evacuated over concerns of a potential threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu also visited the 5th Border Battalion Command in the southeastern province of Hakkari on the first day of Eid al-Adha.    

Soylu said the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) would continue after greeting soldiers on duty in Hakkari’s Aktütün.  

“We will not leave anything unpunished. Their mobility has already been narrowed. They now cannot think anywhere they stand abroad is secure,” Soylu said during the visit.

Meanwhile, the authorities announced that nine PKK militants were “neutralized” in the northeastern province of Kars and the southeastern province of Hakkari on Aug. 31, Doğan News Agency has reported. 

Four PKK militants and one PKK collaborator were killed by an unmanned aerial vehicle at 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 31, according to the Hakkari Governor Office.

Three PKK militants were also wounded and taken under treatment at the Hakkari State Hospital.

Meanwhile, five PKK militants were captured dead in the northeastern province of Kars’ Kağızman district on Aug. 31   

An air-supported operation was conducted against PKK militants detected in Kağızman’s Çemçe Madur area. 

Five PKK militants were captured dead as part of the operation conducted by the gendarmerie command and the police headquarters.

Kars Governor Rahmi Doğan said 25 militants have been “neutralized” in the province since April.

Meanwhile, two security guards were killed in southeastern Turkey by PKK militants, security sources stated on Aug. 31.  
   
A guard was killed in Alıncık, a village in Bingöl, during an operation by security forces against PKK militants. Another was wounded in the operation and was taken to Bingöl State Hospital.

One PKK militant was also neutralized and a weapon and two grenades were seized on the militant’s body by security forces, sources added, saying the operation in the area is ongoing.

Meanwhile, Mehmet Paksoy, a security guard, was also killed by PKK militants in front of his home in Şırnak’s Uludere district.

In 2014, Paksoy stood as a candidate for mayor of Uludere from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).  
   
In another recent attack, PKK militants attacked an armored military vehicle with a hand-made explosive in the southeastern province Siirt on Aug. 31. The explosive, which was set in a trap on the road, was set off by militants while a military vehicle was passing in Siirt’s Pervari district. No casualties or injuries were reported.