Three members of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were arrested in Bismil district of Diyarbakır province on Sunday, on charge of killing a Turkish security force member.
Specialized sergeant Erdem Ünal was killed by three PKK members identified by initials Y.B., Ö.Ş., S.B. in Bismil district on Wednesday.
Three terrorists, two of them members of the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) — an affiliate of the outlawed PKK –, were arrested on Sunday.
They were carrying a sketch of the handmade explosives – disposed by police officers in Bismil two weeks — ago as well as 42 envelopes with different amounts of money in them when they were detained.
The PKK is designated as a “terrorist organization” by the United States (US) and the European Union (EU), as well as Turkey. There have been repeated clashes between security forces and PKK members since a cease-fire between the government and the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, collapsed in July of last year.
Since the settlement process launched by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government in 2012 with the PKK to end the country’s long-standing Kurdish problem ended in July, nearly 200,000 locals in the Southeast have been forced to leave their homes due to fighting and curfews.
The authorities have been imposing curfews in towns and districts to flush PKK militants from urban areas in Turkey’s mostly Kurdish Southeast since then.