| Updated: April 26, 2024 |
Published: 2016-01-25 |
(eNews.pk) -
EU calls for "immediate ceasefire" in the Kurdish southeast Turkey
Ankara (AFP) - The head of the EU Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini on Monday called for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Kurdish-dominated region of Turkey, where the Turkish army is waging a relentless campaign against the Workers Party Kurds (PKK) militants.
We call for an immediate cease-fire in the southeast and strongly condemn all kinds of terrorism, "Mogherini told a joint press conference with Turkish ministers in Ankara.
Kurdish militants scrapped a ceasefire months in Turkey on Thursday, a day after President Tayyip Erdogan promised to "liquidate" them, dashing hopes of any lull in violence following a national election.
The Workers Party of Kurdistan (PKK) militant group said the AK Party in power, who won back to its parliamentary majority in Sunday's election, had shown that it was at war with the attacks this week.
"The unilateral ceasefire has come to an end with the war policy of the AKP and the latest attacks," he said in a statement carried by the Firat news agency, which is close to the militia, based in the northern mountains Iraq.
Erdogan, who oversaw a peace process with the PKK which collapsed in July, pledged Wednesday to continue fighting until the last group match was "liquidated".
Twenty people were killed in clashes with the military in the mainly Kurdish southeast on Thursday, bringing the death toll this week to more than 40. More than 40,000 people have died in the insurgency since it began in 1984.
Last statement of the PKK, on top of the renewed wave of violence, was a new source of concern for foreign investors widely viewed Sunday's vote as offering the possibility of greater stability in NATO member Turkey.
However, generally weaker Turkish financial markets showed little immediate reaction to the PKK movement.
The PKK - designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union - declared the ceasefire on October 10, saying he wanted to avoid violence that would prevent a fair election. The government dismissed as an electoral tactic.
"Fight Stips"
On the day the ceasefire was announced, more than 100 people died in a double suicide bomb attack targeted pro-Kurdish activists in the capital Ankara, and the next day Turkey launched air strikes against PKK fighters.
"It is clear that a high fresh hostilities can only be achieved with a new will for a solution of the Kurdish problem in the Turkish state and talks aimed at such a solution," the PKK statement.
"We call on all Kurdish people, the peoples of Turkey and the forces of democracy to intensify their struggle."
Erdogan has said the peace process, which Ankara launched imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in late 2012, it has been relegated to the "fridge". Ocalan last held talks with pro-Kurdish delegation to the process in April.
In the latest violence, the army killed 16 PKK rebels in a rural area near the town of Yuksekova, on the Iraqi border, the General Staff said on its website. The army said it had killed 15 PKK fighters and lost two soldiers there on Wednesday.
In the town of Silvan, where authorities imposed a curfew throughout the day in three districts this week, a policeman and two men were shot dead in clashes, bringing the death toll were five this week, they said security sources.
They said a soldier had died in a clash with militants on Thursday in the district of Diyarbakir Dicle, which is also partly under curfew. Two militants were also killed in Dicle.
|
|
Enews.pk