Selahattin Demirtaş, the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), has claimed that the special operations forces who were sent by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) to predominantly Kurdish regions are committing murders in those areas.
Visiting the families of Ömer Koç (16) and Rezan Kaya (20), who were shot dead by unidentified killers in the Bağlar district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Monday, to offer his condolences on Wednesday afternoon, Demirtaş accused Erdoğan and MİT of deliberately intensifying an atmosphere of violence in the eastern and southeastern regions of the country.
Demirtaş claimed that the security units, who wear masks, often seen in tense Kurdish cities are not like the previous forces of JİTEM, an illegal counterterrorism unit formed under the gendarmerie that took the law into its own hands and terrorized the Kurdish population in the Southeast throughout the 1990s. “These more closely resemble special operations forces. Most of them are walking around in masks. All of them drive vehicles of the same make. They go anywhere, regardless of whether there is an operation or not, and they are committing murders there,” he said. “Governors and district governors say they are not [being] informed about these incidents. Those forces might even threaten those district governors who do not work in cooperation with them.”
Pointing to the suspicious deaths of Koç and Kaya, Demirtaş further claimed: “In particular, I want to underline that such murders are being committed by those special units who came from outside the city. It is not certain under whose authority those small forces are operating. They don't respect the governor or the district governor. They just come and commit murders. … Those are not from the illegal deep state. They are being organized in Ankara by the palace [Erdoğan's presidential palace] and MİT. They believe they will be able to intimidate people and force them to vote for the [Justice and Development Party] AKP in the [Nov. 1 snap] election via intimidation and threats.”
He added that those who engage in such kinds of illegality will be brought to account politically and judicially.
“Because of the desires of the palace and because of the fact that it has adopted an authoritarian understanding as a state policy, children of Kurds and Turks are being killed,” said Demirtaş, adding that the AK Party will suffer the consequences of engaging in such deeds.
One child killed, 3 wounded in bomb blast in Silvan
One child was killed and three more wounded on Thursday when a bomb exploded in Diyarbakır's Silvan district. According to media reports, some children who were on the street found a bomb in the Tekel neighborhood of Silvan at around 12 p.m. on Thursday. The bomb detonated while the children were touching it. Four children were injured during the incident and taken to Silvan State Hospital. Hasan Yılmaz, a 9-year-old boy who was critically wounded during the blast, died of his injuries at the hospital. Police have reportedly launched an investigation into the incident.
In the meantime, curfews were imposed in eight neighborhoods of the Silopi district of Şırnak as of Wednesday evening. The curfews were still in place in the district at the time of writing.
Detention warrants issued against 36 in Belgium for aiding PKK
The Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office has issued detention warrants against 36 suspects on charges of aiding and abetting the terrorist PKK and kidnapping children.
According to the investigation being conducted by the prosecutor's office, the detained suspects are facing charges of being members of the PKK terrorist organization, kidnapping Kurdish children and youths living in Western Europe, and providing those kidnapped people with combat training in PKK camps located in various parts of Belgium. Those who were trained were then sent to Iraq and Greece.
Tens of civilians have been killed during clashes between Turkish security forces and the members of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in southeastern towns and cities since late July. Day and week-long curfews were imposed in several tense districts of Diyarbakır, Mardin, Hakkari, Van and Şırnak provinces.
For instance, a curfew was imposed on Sept. 4 and lifted on Sept. 12 in the restive district of Cizre in Şırnak. Former interim Minister of European Union Affairs Ali Haydar Konca also reported the deaths of more than 20 civilians, adding that approximately 50 were injured while the curfew was in place.
Two civilians were killed during clashes between the PKK and security forces in the tense Nusaybin district in Mardin, where a curfew was imposed between Oct. 1 and Oct. 6. Four other civilians were also reported to be injured in altercations during the curfew.
Turkey began pounding PKK targets in southeastern Anatolia and northern Iraq on July 24 after two police officers were killed by the terrorist group apparently in retaliation for a suicide bombing on July 20 in Suruç, a rural district and city of Şanlıurfa province, that killed 34 pro-Kurdish activists and was blamed on the radical terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Violence has escalated sharply since then with the PKK stepping up its attacks on security forces in southeastern Anatolia. More than 150 Turkish security personnel have been killed in PKK attacks since late July.