The statement said new clashes between the two groups would drag them into an “irreparable period.” A group of PKK members protesting the recent killing of seven PKK members in Tunceli by security forces clashed with members of the Hizbullah-affiliated Mustazaf Association, resulting in the death of Hizbullah member Ubeydullah Durna. Yüksekova District Governor Üzeyir Aziz Özer said the bullet that killed Durna was not fired by the police who intervened in the clash, but by protestors.
According to the statement, Hizbullah does not want to be involved in any clashes. “However, if clashes erupt [between Hizbullah and the PKK] then we will enter an irreparable period,” it read. The statement also asked PKK authorities to find out who killed the Hizbullah member. “Otherwise, we will respond to the attack. … We are having difficulty preventing our supporters from retaliating,” the statement added.
The Turkish Hizbullah is a Kurdish, Sunni fundamentalist organization that appeared in the late 1980s in southeastern Turkey. In the early 1990s, when the Turkish government's conflict with the PKK peaked, Hizbullah began attacking suspected PKK sympathizers. The group has been mostly inactive since the mid-1990s, when the group's top leaders were either killed or arrested in a major crackdown.
