Turkey in all-out-fight against terrorism: Gül

ANKARA/ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish President Abdullah Gül visits a soldier who was wounded in an attack by the suspected members of the outlawed PKK in the Aegean city of İzmir’s Foça district. DHA Photo

Turkish President Abdullah Gül has said Turkey is involved in a countrywide fight against terrorism, after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the recent attack on the country’s western coast was “another example of terrorism’s spread.”

“We are going to continue our fight against terrorism not only in certain areas but all around our country,” Gül said to reporters yesterday at the Ege University Medical School Hospital, after visiting soldiers who were injured in a terrorist attack in Foça, İzmir yesterday. “We are going to continue our fight against these people, who commit the most despicable acts of terrorism, even on this holy Ramadan day, against civilians and military personnel alike.”

One Turkish soldier was killed and 11 were injured on Aug. 9, when a landmine allegedly planted by members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) exploded as a military bus was passing on a road in the Foça district of İzmir. It is important that not only the Turkish public but the world sees what “humanity” means to the people who commit these attacks against civilians and soldiers alike on a holy day, Gül said. “They already have [seen]. We have validity and superiority in this sense. This fight will continue with determination and perseverance. … I want everyone to know this.”

Attacks in Mardin, Diyarbakır and Van

Meanwhile terror attacks have continued in the southeast of Turkey. Suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) remotely detonated a powerful explosive device targeting a military vehicle in the southeastern province of Mardin on Aug 9. An operation was launched to apprehend the attackers. Also a police station in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır also came under attack on the same night after an assailant that was allegedly hiding among children opened fire. The assailant fled after firing 19 bullets at the station and the police officers outside. Special police forces in tactical gear surrounded a neighborhood where the attacker fled and launched an operation, going from home to home. In another incident, PKK members detonated a remote-controlled bomb they had previously set up on the Van-Hakkari motorway as a military vehicle was passing on the morning of Aug. 10, causing no damage or casualties. One injured PKK member was captured and taken to the Van Regional Education and Research Hospital for treatment. An operation with aerial backup was initiated in the area to capture the fleeing PKK members. .

‘All-or-nothing’ attack on Şemdinli: PM Erdoğan

The PKK leadership’s attack plan for Şemdinli, as revealed in radio discussions, was to enter Şemdinli whatever the cost, Erdoğan said.

“’Enter Şemdinli even if 3,000 civilians are killed. Die, but do not leave Şemdinli,’” Erdoğan quoted the order as saying, speaking at an iftar dinner late on Aug. 9, organized in honor of the relatives of the killed and wounded soldiers. Elaborating on the PKK’s recent terrorist activities in village of Şemdinli, Erdoğan said PKK leaders had ordered terrorists to enter Şemdinli, Hakkari, and remain there whatever the result might be. “’Die before you leave Şemdinli.’ That was their order,” Erdoğan said.

The PKK used children in their attack in Çukurca, Erdoğan said. “The three attacking terrorists were apparently 16- or 17- year-old girls. My Kurdish brothers should see it,” he said. The prime minister indirectly criticized the leader of the Rights and Equality Party (HEPAR), retired Maj. Gen. Osman Pamukoğlu, by saying that some retired generals were saying on television that Turkey had lost Hakkari Province. Erdoğan accused Pamukoğlu of speaking nonsense and in a way that supports the PKK’s claims. “Why does he speak like that?” Erdoğan said.