Government Takes Firm Stand on Kurdish Question

Gendarmerie Commando Corporal Fatih Gökkaya was killed on 2 June when members of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) opened fire on a military unit in Çukurca in the province of Hakkari on the south-eastern edge of Turkey. Three soldiers were injured.

Fire was commenced on the Naval Supply Support Command in İskenderun in the province of Hatay on the eastern Mediterranean coast in the night of 1 June. A car passed by on the highway from Adana to Hatay at around 1.30 am and fired gunshots. Nobody was injured. The previous day, six soldiers died in an attack of the PKK, seven got injured.

According to Fırat News Agency, four PKK members were killed in an operation initiated by the People's Defence Forces (HPG), an armed arm of the PKK, in the countryside of Bingöl (south-eastern Anatolia) on 25 May. Another PKK member died in an attack on a radar station in Hatay on 31 May.

Government announcement

Minister of the Interior, Beşir Atalay, gave the following statement to the press at the exit of a meeting on new passport regulations:

"We are carrying on and we will carry on with the democratization in Turkey, including anti-terrorism strategies. There will not be any halt in this. [...] This is a long-term work, a long-term struggle of course. [...] We have a serious investigation being carried out into the background of the incident in Iskenderun. On one side there is misinformation, on the other side we have the intelligence information. Additionally, we investigate the precautions that were taken and the ones that were not taken on the day of the incidents etc... Of course this is the area belonging to our Armed Forces".

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a "security meeting" in the Prime Ministry yesterday (2 June). According to a written statement issued by the Prime Ministry's Press Centre, the meeting was attended by the Chief of General Staff, related ministers, commanders of the Armed Forces and undersecretaries and officers concerned with security issues.

The statement read as follows: "The recent terrorist incidents were discussed as well as anti-terror endeavours and additional measures and steps to be taken in the future. The fight against terrorism will be continued in a multidimensional manner and with determination. It was furthermore taken to the record that efforts to eliminate conditions being utilized by terrorism will be increased".

Lawyers were not able to talk to Öcalan

On the other hand, the lawyers were not able to pay their weekly visit to imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan because the "coaster was out of service". Öcalan is serving his sentence on Imralı Island in the Sea of Marmara. (EÜ/TK)