News / Turkey

Turkey imposes curfews in Diyarbakir ahead of anti-PKK operation

Wednesday, 14 February 2018 10:38 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 14 February 2018 10:38 AM ]

The picture shows buildings which were damaged during operations and clashes between Turkish forces and Kurdish militants, pictured in the Sur neighborhood of Diyarbakir, Turkey, February 9, 2018. (By Reuters)

Turkey has imposed curfews in several areas in Diyarbakir in preparation for a new operation against the Kurdish militants active in the southeastern province.

The Diyarbakir governor’s office said in a statement on Wednesday that a total of 176 curfews had been imposed across Diyarbakir.

“A curfew is in place from Wednesday 0800 (0500 GMT) until a second announcement is made” in the villages and towns in the Diyarbakir districts of Silvan, Kulp, Lice and Hazro, the statement read.

The curfews, the statement added, will allow Turkish security forces to “neutralize” members and collaborators of the “separatist terrorist organization,” referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Turkey has banned the PKK as a terrorist organization. The militant group has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984. The three-decade conflict has left more than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, dead.

A shaky ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK that had stood since 2013 was declared null and void by the militants in 2015 in the wake of a large-scale Turkish military campaign against the group.

Turkish air force has been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country’s troubled southeastern border region as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Turkey has also been waging “Operation Olive Branch” in Syria’s Afrin since January 20 in a bid to eliminate the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as the Syrian branch of the PKK.

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