News / Turkey

Turkish soldier dies of gunshot wounds

Monday, 21 December 2015 9:51 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 21 December 2015 9:51 AM ]

A Turkish police officer stands at attention next to the coffin of a comrade during a funeral at the police headquarters in the city of Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, November 23, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

A Turkish soldier has succumbed to the wounds sustained during skirmishes with members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group in Turkey’s volatile southeastern province of Sirnak.

The Turkish General Staff announced in a statement that the soldier was injured in the town of Cizre, located about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital, Ankara, on Saturday, and died of his wounds the next day.

Clash across Turkey

Meanwhile, clashes have erupted between Turkish security forces and demonstrators protesting against a curfew in the southeastern part of Turkey that Ankara imposed to facilitate purported counter-terrorism operations against the outlawed PKK.

On Sunday, Kurdish demonstrators took to the streets in the troubled southeastern city of Diyarbakir, and voiced objection to the restrictions on the free movement of people.

Protesters run as riot police disperse them during a protest in Istanbul, Turkey, December 20, 2015. (Photo by Reuters)

Police forces fired tear gas canisters as well as rubber-coated steel bullets to disperse the protesters.

Elsewhere, in Turkey’s most populous city of Istanbul, which also serves as the economic, cultural, and historical center of the country, people converged on Taksim Square in a rally called by the pro-Kurdish and left-wing People’s Democratic Party (HDP), and chanted “Long Live Kurdistan.”

The marchers also shouted slogans in support of the imprisoned leader of the outlawed PKK, Abdullah Ocalan.

Police forces then intervened and fired shots in the air as well as tear gas canisters to break up the protest. Several people were reportedly detained.

Hundreds of people also staged a demonstration in the eastern city of Van to protest against Turkish military operations and related curfews.

A woman walks past a building that was damaged during clashes between Turkish security forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern town of Silvan in Diyarbakir Province, Turkey, December 7, 2015. (Photo by Reuters)

Ankara has been engaged in a large-scale campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the recent past. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the positions of the group in northern Iraq.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 20 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. More than 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of supposed reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, in turn prompting the Turkish military operations.

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