PKK ends unilateral ceasefire in Turkey

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has ended a month-old unilateral truce in Turkey following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s pledge to “liquidate” the militants.

“The unilateral halt to hostilities has come to an end with the AKP’s war policy and the latest attacks,” the PKK said in a statement carried by the Firat news agency on Thursday. AKP refers to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party.

‘On war footing’

The statement came after Erdogan vowed to continue anti-PKK operations until every last militant was “liquidated.” It said the AKP had demonstrated it was on a war footing with attacks launched this week against the PKK positions.

The unilateral ceasefire by the PKK was announced following twin blasts that targeted a group of pro-Kurdish activists in Ankara on October 10.

It also came in the run-up to the country’s recent general elections, in which the AKP, founded by Erdogan, regained its parliamentary majority.

The AKP gained 317 seats in the 550-member parliament in the November 1 snap elections. It came five months after the AKP was stripped of its overall majority and subsequently failed in coalition talks with main opposition factions.

Earlier on Thursday, eighteen people were killed in clashes with the Turkish army in the country’s southeast.

The Turkish military has been conducting offensive operations against the alleged positions of the Takfiri Daesh terrorists in northern Syria as well as those of the PKK in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 20 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, which left 33 people dead and 104 others injured.

The PKK and Ankara had agreed to a ceasefire in 2013; Ankara’s military campaign against the PKK ended that deal.

On October 10, twin blasts also targeted activists who had convened outside Ankara’s main train station for a peace rally organized by leftist and pro-Kurdish opposition groups. Ankara said that at least 102 people were killed and over 500 wounded in the attacks.

Following the incident, the PKK called on its members to halt militant activities in Turkey as a move to avoid any violence that might prevent a fair election.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s.

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