The nine of PKK terrorists were killed in a clash with security forces in Bağcılar, Bingöl province, in the early hours of Thursday morning. A statement made by the office said Turkish security forces were carrying out an operation at an address in Bağcılar to capture a group of terrorists when an armed clash broke out after the terrorists refused to surrender. The video shows a terrorist who was slightly wounded in the clash, saying he and many people in the group wanted to surrender but could not as the group leader, codenamed Peri Mahir, who was killed in the operation, threatened others not to surrender.
The captured PKK member said Mahir refused to surrender as he was afraid of the PKK killing his family, adding that Mahir told others he would kill anyone who attempts to surrender, and commanded everyone to set off the bombs they had on them. The captured terrorists said they fled the scene after detonating their bombs and running outside to surrender.
The Bingöl Governor’s Office on Friday stated that Mahir was the head of the so-called Erzurum state, which includes the Bingöl, Muş, Tunceli, Erzurum and Elazığ provinces. Mahir joined the terrorist organization in 1994 and was head of the PKK’s special forces in northern Iraq.
The captured terrorist, shown in the video, speaks to gendarmes and gives his view on the PKK and what he witnessed during his time in the terrorist organization. “The organization is not as it is seen from the outside. I joined the PKK after having problems with my family and because I sympathized with the organization. But I regret it. It is not like it is shown on the Roj TV [a satellite television station acting as a mouthpiece for the PKK]. There is strong sacrilege against Islam in the organization. Other than not believing in God, they also swear about the religion and God. I do not regret being alive and surrendering to the soldiers; in fact, I regret joining the organization. They call the soldiers ‘the enemy,’ however, as you can see I am wearing a military coat,” the terrorist says.
In the operation, Bingöl gendarmerie units seized two M-16 rifles, nine Kalashnikovs, a RPG-7 rocket launcher, five RPG rockets, four hand grenades, a pair of binoculars, 47 electric igniters, three radiophones, 500 grams of A-4 plastic explosives, six remote controlled explosion devices, TL 60,000, claimed to be forcefully collected from local people, many food packages and hard copies of documents belonging to the terrorist organization.
The attack comes less than a week after Turkish warplanes bombed three suspected PKK targets in northern Iraq, used by terrorists to stage hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets.
The conflict with the PKK has claimed tens of thousands of lives and cost Turkey hundreds of billions of dollars. The group is labeled a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, which has supplied Predator drones to Turkey to assist with its fight in the rugged Southeast.
