Botan- Northern Kurdistan: According to Firat News Agency eight village guards, the local collaborators were kidnapped by Kurdish guerrillas in Botan province. The reports are not confirmed by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or Turkish army officials.
Turkish news agency DHA also reported that eight village guards were kidnapped but it did not give any details.
Local media reports fierce clashes between PKK and Turkish military. According to latest reports the fighting broke out in Pervari, town of Siirt province in the late afternoon.
One village guard is reportedly wounded. The province is a scene of Turkish military offensive against the Kurdish resistance movement for the last two days.
The violence between Turkish armed forces and the PKK guerrillas has escalated in recent weeks. At least 7 military personnel were killed in clashes between PKK and Turkish army since Thursday.
The Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) was founded in 1973 as the result of the continuous and systematic oppressions and the denial of the Kurdish nation by the occupying powers of Kurdistan. The PKK took up arm in 1984 since all the possible political and diplomatic means applied for 11 years in between 1973-84 proved exhausted. The PKK however declared its first unilateral ceasefire in 1993 since it believed the arm struggle had hit its targets. Since 1993 to date the PKK has declared 6 unilateral ceasefires in 6 different occasions and called upon Ankara to solve the Kurdish problem in a peaceful democratic way.
Despite the facts that the PKK has declared 6 unilateral ceasefires and also it sent peace groups in two different occasions yet the PKK is considered as a ‘terrorist’ organization by Ankara and the US. It also continues to be on the blacklist in EU despite the court ruling, which overturned the decision to place the Kurdish freedom movement on the EU’s terror list. “By labelling PKK as a terrorist organisation, the EU and the US are giving Turkey a green light to target its civilians. They gave the Turkish government a free hand to do what it will, a mother of Kurdish martyr said”.
It should be noted that after 1954, apart from the Korean war in1949-52 and the invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the Turkish Army operations have continued to be exclusively against the Kurds.