VAN, Northern Kurdistan, — The Kurdish Defence Forces (HPG) reported that 4 JITEM members who were scouting in Catak district of Van province were killed in two different ambushes on 10 July.
It is also reported that Kurdish Women’s Army YJA- Star guerrillas attacked an armoured military vehicle carrying 7 military personnel in Pervari district of Siirt on 11 July.
Due to clashes that broke out after the ambush the losses of the Turkish army has not been confirmed. The ambush was reprisal against the attack of the Turkish army in which several guerrillas have lost their lives.
HPG also claimed responsibility for the attack against petrol station in Cukurca district of Hakkari which was providing the army with petrol. While no one was hurt in the sabotage, the station was completely destroyed.
Both YJA-Star and HPG are defensive military wings of Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) which 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.
Turkish crimes against humanity in Kurdistan have gone beyond imagination. In the link below Turkish soldiers were filmed while dragging on the ground and kicking the bodies of two Kurdish guerrillas who had lost their life in fighting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4poAB845Ozc