Eighty-eight KCK suspects were arrested over the weekend while 10 Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists were killed in an operation in the mountainous areas surrounding the village of Kurşunlu in Diyarbakır's Dicle district on Saturday, Today's Zaman reported.
The operation, headed by Diyarbakır Regional Gendarmerie Command Brig. Gen. Seyfullah Saldık, began after unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) spotted PKK terrorists, following which F-5 and F-15 fighter jets from the Diyarbakır 2nd Air Force Command were sent to bombard the area where they were detected. Images later taken by UAVs showed 10 PKK terrorists had been killed while trying to flee a cave that had been bombed.
Later gendarmerie units encircled the area in which there are four caves and called on PKK terrorists to surrender. However, no terrorists have surrendered to the security units as of yet. It is believed that some 50 PKK terrorists are currently hiding in the other caves in the area. If terrorists insist on not surrendering, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) units will destroy the caves.
The police were alerted to the whereabouts of the terrorists after the Diyarbakır provincial gendarmerie office tracked telephone numbers that had been saved on the cell phone of a slain PKK terrorist, Hüseyin Akdoğan, who was killed in a rural area of Dicle, and discovered that some 50 PKK members were hiding out in four different caves located on Görese Mountain, near the village of Kurşunlu.
A radiophone conversation between PKK terrorists and high-level terrorists in the Kandil Mountains, a major PKK camp in northern Iraq, showed that the terrorists had come into difficulty because of attacks by Turkish fighter jets.
Meanwhile, a written statement issued by the Diyarbakır Governor's Office stated that a gendarmerie unit from the Dicle Gendarmerie found 90 kilograms of A-4 explosives while patrolling a road on Saturday.
The conflict with the PKK has claimed tens of thousands of lives and cost Turkey hundreds of billions of dollars. The group is labeled a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, which has supplied Predator drones to Turkey to assist in its fight in the rugged Southeast.
Police arrest 88 in KCK operations
Eighty-eight people were arrested over the weekend in operations carried out against the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella group that allegedly encompasses the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its affiliated organizations.
Police increased their operations against the KCK's youth branches and arrested 20 suspects believed to be members of the KCK's youth branch in the southeastern province of Şırnak on Saturday.
According to a statement by the Şırnak Governor's Office, the Şırnak Police Department's Counterterrorism Units are operating against the terrorist PKK and KCK in the cities, and police arrested 20 people in operations against the KCK's Democratic Patriotic Youth Council (DYGM) on Saturday. Suspects were allegedly involved in attacks against the police, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and for participating and organizing illegal demonstrations. Additionally, police seized material used to make Molotov cocktails.
Another police operation took place in Kurtalan, Siirt province, on Saturday, where 20 people were arrested, including Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) officials from the Kurtalan municipality.
Furthermore, a written statement made by the Batman Governor's Office stated that 48 people were arrested when the Batman Prosecutor's Office requested an operation targeting a group of people who were allegedly aiding and abating the terrorist organizations.
Police have recently stepped up operations against the KCK. The KCK investigation started in December 2009, and a large number of Kurdish politicians, including several officials from the BDP, have been detained in the case.
The suspects stand accused of various crimes, including membership in a terrorist organization, aiding and abetting a terrorist organization and attempting to destroy the country's unity and integrity. The detainees include mayors and municipal officials from the BDP, which has said the investigation is the government's way of suppressing its politicians, denying any links between the suspects and terrorist organizations.
Among the most recent detainees are publisher Ragıp Zarakolu and constitutional law professor Büşra Ersanlı, who both taught classes at the BDP's Politics Academy -- a training workshop for young party members. Their detention and subsequent arrest sparked outrage from the BDP, as well as civil society groups.
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