Turkey and PKK pressed to restore ceasefire

There are increasing calls for the international community to pressure Turkey and the armed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, to resume a ceasefire.

Turkey and PKK pressed to restore ceasefireTurkey and PKK pressed to restore ceasefire

Turkey and PKK pressed to restore ceasefire

It comes amid growing concern about the number of civilians killed in security operations targeting the militant group in Turkey's southeast.

Authorities in a mainly Kurdish region there have widened a 24-hour curfew preventing people leaving their homes.

The Turkish military says it has killed 20 more militants, while three soldiers died in a PKK attack.

There was gunfire in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakir, where security forces are engaged in near daily clashes with PKK militants.

Authorities there have indefinitely expanded a round-the-clock curfew, that's been in place since the start of December, to include five more neighbourhoods.

They say it will protect civilians and allow security forces to root out the militants.

In the historic district of Sur local people have been ordered to leave their homes.

Children and the elderly were among hundreds seen hastily leaving the area.

This local man despairs about where his large family will go.

"In 1994-1995 [Turkish security forces] burned down our villages, so we migrated here and we have been living in poverty. I have 10 young children, and there are thousands of miserable people like me. Where will we go now?"

Violence has escalated in southeast Turkey since the breakdown of a two-and-a-half year ceasefire between the state and the PKK in July last year.

The pro-Kurdish opposition HDP party has voiced its concern about the growing number of civilians killed in security operations since December.

It puts the toll at nearly 120.

Party leader Selahattin Demirtas says the international community needs to push for a ceasefire.

"The international community should make an explicit call to the PKK and to the Turkish government to return to a ceasefire and sound negotiations. And they should repeat this call constantly. We believe that the international community does not heap enough pressure on this matter. The peace process is no longer a domestic concern for Turkey. It is directly linked with the Syrian conflict as well as the migrant crisis in Europe."

Rights group Human Rights Watch says since the collapse of the ceasefire there has been a serious deterioration of the situation.

Its senior researcher in Turkey, Emma Sinclair Webb, says the nation is at risk of becoming very unstable.

"And that's why Turkey's allies should be speaking out very strongly on the escalation of the violence in the southeast and, you know, how regrettable it is that only months ago there was a political process underway which is now broken down and where civilian casualties are rising."

Turkey, the United States and the European Union all classify the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

The group says it is fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurdish minority.

 

 


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