Turkey army launches operation against Kurdish fighters
The Turkish army has launched an operation aimed at targeting the hideouts of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters in the southeastern part of the country.
The military said in a Tuesday statement that the operation was being carried out in the Mazidagi district of Mardin Province.
It also said that five teams of security forces were deployed to the region following an order by the local governor. The army did not give further details about the operation.
The operation came two days after the imprisoned leader of PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, called on Kurds to cease their decades-long armed struggle against Turkey and hold a congress as part of efforts for a peaceful resolution of the differences.
“A congress should be organized to bring an end to the 40-year struggle against the Turkish Republic,” Ocalan said in a message on the occasion of the Persian New Year in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir on Saturday.
Ocalan said the congress would decide “a social and political strategy which will determine our history.”
Turkey’s government welcomed the message as “positive in every way.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, said on Monday that “peace is not possible under the shadow of arms.”
Ankara launched a peace process with the PKK in 2012 to put an end to the armed Kurdish campaign for autonomy.
The PKK subsequently declared a ceasefire with Ankara, and began pulling out from southeastern Turkey to camps in northern Iraq, where they are currently based.
The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies, had been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s.
DB/MKA/SS
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