Turkey continues strikes on PKK despite disarmament, says monitor
Barzani, DEM Party discuss Kurdish peace process
Kurdish fighters burn weapons, signal end to armed struggle against Turkey
Masoud Barzani indicates willing to visit Abdullah Ocalan
Parents of fighters embrace peace as PKK burns weapons
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey has continued its attacks on alleged Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions on Saturday, a day after the PKK symbolically destroyed weapons as part of peace negotiations with Ankara, according to a group monitoring the conflict.
'At 8:30 am this morning, Turkey bombed the village of Mewin in Amedi 5 times,' Kamaran Osman, a member of the Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), said on X.
'Since the beginning of this month, Turkey has carried out 12 artillery attacks,' he added.
Amedi is situated about 70 kilometers north of Duhok city and just 15 kilometers from the Turkish border. The area has been a frontline in the conflict between Turkish forces and the PKK.
On Friday, in a striking and symbolic gesture, a group of fighters from the PKK set their weapons ablaze, signalling an end to more than four decades of armed struggle for Kurdish rights in Turkey. Earlier this year, the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire and announced it would dissolve itself.
On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded to the ceremonial disarmament, saying 'The problem of terror that has been lingering in our nation for 47 years has, God willing, entered the process of ending.'
Despite months of negotiations for peace, Turkish attacks in the Kurdistan Region saw an eight percent increase from May through June, according to a CPT report released on Friday. Nearly all 98 percent of these strikes were concentrated within Duhok province, particularly in the Amedi district.
'Turkish military strikes have remained steady and concentrated - though notably, no civilian casualties have been reported - since their surge in May,' said the report.
The conflict has devastated hundreds of villages in the Kurdistan Region and northern Iraq, some have been completely abandoned.
Considered one of the longest insurgencies in history, the conflict has claimed more than 40,000 lives, many of them civilians.
Founded in 1978, the PKK is a secular, armed group that blends Marxist and Kurdish nationalist ideologies. Turkey, a NATO member, the US and European Union have designated it a terrorist organization.
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