Seven PKK militants surrender during operations in southeast

ANKARA/ DİYARBAKIR/ BİNGÖL - Doğan News Agency

Some six outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, along with a “neighborhood representative” allegedly assigned by PKK founder Cemil Bayık, have surrendered to security forces in the Yüksekova district of the southeastern province of Hakkari, security sources said on April 15.  

During a counter-terrorism operation against PKK militants, a sniper who was allegedly sent to the town by order of Bayık and proclaimed himself as the PKK’s representative of Yüksekova’s Güngör neighborhood, has surrendered to soldiers with six other militants.

Security sources have also revealed pictures of the militants to refute claims that “those who surrender are being killed.” Stating that the surrendered militants’ needs are being met and those who are wounded are treated and then sent the necessary authorities for procedural acts, sources called on militants to surrender “before it is too late” and called on parents to “take care of their children.”

The surrender came at a time when the security forces expanded their operations to rural parts of the Silvan district of the southeastern Diyarbakır province with the governor’s office declaring curfews in four neighborhoods of the town on April 14.  

Diyarbakır governorate announced that an operation would begin in the Ergeçidi, Üçdirek, Erkenciler and Dolapdere neighborhoods of Silvan and that a curfew would be put into effect starting at 6:60 p.m. on April 14.

Meanwhile, 10 people have been detained on April 14 during simultaneous operations carried out against the PKK and its umbrella group, the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), in the provinces of Istanbul, Antalya, Kocaeli and Malatya, with the eastern province of Bingöl being the center of the raids. While five of the detainees were later arrested, five of them were released on condition of judicial control.