A Turkish soldier was killed in a clash between Turkish security forces and the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the Amanos Mountains in southern Turkey, according to a statement from Hatay Governor Erdal Ata on Tuesday.
Ata said security forces had been monitoring PKK activities in the region for the past several months and that they were involved in a clash for the first time on Tuesday, which led to the death of one of the soldiers.
Turkish authorities had conducted direct talks with jailed PKK chief Abdullah Öcalan for several years until a truce in effect collapsed in the summer of 2015. Since then, there have been heavy clashes between the PKK and Turkish security forces.
More than 40,000 people, including 5,500 security force members, have been killed in four decades of fighting between the Turkish state and the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU.