DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, 16 April 2005 — Four members of the Turkish security forces and 21 Kurdish rebels were killed in a clash during a security operation in the southeast of the country, local officials said yesterday.
The death toll from Thursday’s clash had earlier stood at three soldiers and an unknown number of rebels. Fighting broke out when a group of outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels responded with fire after they were ordered to surrender by security forces near the town of Pervari in Siirt province and the town of Eruh in Sirnak, the Sirnak governor’s office said.
Several guns, hand grenades, mines, rounds of ammunition and explosives were seized in rebel hide-outs in the area, a communique said. Security forces were pressing on with their sweep of the region which began on April 12, it added.
The PKK waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in southeastern Turkey between 1984 and 1999. The conflict claimed more than 36,000 lives and was the source of accusations of gross human rights violations on both sides.
The PKK declared a unilateral cease-fire in 1999 after its leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured and tried in Turkey, but it called off the truce last year, raising tensions in the region. The PKK, which changed its name twice in three years before reverting to its original name 10 days ago, is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Warplanes and helicopters took off from an air base in the main southeastern city of Diyarbakir to support the operation involving soldiers from three brigades along with 2,000 village guards. Officials said security measures had been tightened around state buildings in the region to prevent revenge attacks.
Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called yesterday his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon for an exchange of views ahead of a planned visit to the Jewish state next month, Anatolia news agency reported. Erdogan told Sharon that Turkey welcomed the security measures Israel employed last week to prevent a rally by right-wing Jewish extremists at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Anatolia quoted an unnamed official as saying.
He also expressed hope that his planned trip to Israel on May 1 would make a positive contribution to bilateral ties, the agency said. Erdogan will travel to Israel after a chilly period between the two countries, which have enjoyed close ties since they hammered out a military cooperation deal in 1996, much to the anger of Arab nations and Iran.
Last May, Erdogan condemned as “state terror” a deadly Israeli raid on the Rafah refugee camp and Ankara temporarily recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv. Two months earlier Erdogan called the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin a “terrorist act,” and in November 2003 turned down a request by Sharon for a brief visit to Ankara, citing his busy schedule.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul made fence-mending talks in Israel in January, declaring that bilateral ties remain strong.
In another development, the Greek defense minister pledged yesterday to accelerate the clearing of anti-personnel mines along its border with Turkey where 74 illegal immigrants have been killed since 1994 according to a toll compiled by AFP.
Greek Defense Minister Vassilis Mihaloliakos made the commitment during a meeting with the group The International Campaign to Ban Land Mines, according to a statement by the minister. Greece will now finish clearing the minefields by 2011 instead of 2014 as stipulated in the Ottawa convention on anti-personnel mines, which was ratified by Greece and Turkey in September 2003, a Defense Ministry official told AFP.
