BDP members protest operation against PKK

DİYARBAKIR / HAKKARİ

A group of deputies and members of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) left the city of Diyarbakır in southeastern Turkey on April 26 to stage a protest in Bingöl, another province in the region, where security forces were conducting a military operation.

Independent Van deputy Aysel Tuğluk and BDP deputies Nursel Aydoğan and Ayla Akat Ata also joined the protest to act as live shields in the countryside between Diyarbakır’s Lice district and Bingöl province, where security forces were conducting an operation against militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK.)

The protestors were delayed due to heavy snow in mountainous areas, however, and decided to spend the night in the village of Hedik.

Meanwhile, authorities destroyed 10 kilograms of explosives and a trigger mechanism found on a highway in the Çukurca district of Hakkari, also in southeastern Turkey, after locals notified security forces. Nine troops were killed last year by explosives placed in the same spot.

The BDP is primarily focused on the Kurdish issue.

Compiled from Doðan and the Anatolia news agency reports by the Daily News staff in Istanbul.