DIYARBAKIR – Kurdish fighters killed 13 Turkish soldiers in an ambush yesterday in which five of the ambushers also died.
The incident marked the worst clash since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) ended a ceasefire in February.
Prime minister Tayyip Erdogan immediately called a meeting with the army and intelligence chiefs as well as the interior minister and head of the paramilitary gendarmerie in Ankara.
Security forces, backed by warplanes, launched a hunt for the rebel fighters in the mountains of Diyarbakir province. The military chief of land forces also went to the area.
The PKK moved to what it calls an “active defence” stance, whereby its fighters defend themselves if threatened, after ending its six-month-old ceasefire.
Last week the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, sent word through his lawyers that he had agreed with Turkish officials to set up a “peace council” aimed at ending the 27-year-old separatist conflict.
Ocalan said the council should be formed within a month, though it was unclear what form it would take when operational.
The proposal came a month after Mr Erdogan’s AK Party won a third term in power and two months after Ocalan threatened war unless the government entered talks.
Deputies from a pro-Kurdish party regarded as close to the PKK failed to reach a deal with the AK Party on ending their boycott of parliament, representatives of the two sides told reporters after a second day of talks yesterday.
The boycott by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies was prompted by court rulings barring some of its jailed elected candidates from taking their seats.
Mr Erdogan’s government won a confidence vote on Wednesday to push ahead with plans to rewrite the constitution, but the Kurdish boycott remains a hurdle to replacing the constitution created after a 1980 military coup.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the Kurdish conflict, though violence faded after Ocalan was captured in 1999.
Regardless of the official PKK stance of only active defence stance there has been a steady stream of militant activity in recent weeks. – (Reuters)