PKK Kurdish rebels abduct local official in Turkey / ELECTIONS

Worldbulletin 3.3.2014 – The sources said blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), saying Ecer was taken at gunpoint and had not been heard from since Friday. The PKK has not claimed responsibility

Gunmen have abducted the top elected official of a village in southeastern Turkey, security sources said on Sunday, stirring concerns that violence could mount in the region before municipal polls on March 30. Abdurrahman Ecer, 50, is head of the village of Cigli, near the Iraqi border in the remote province of Hakkari, the sources said. He belongs to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party. The sources said blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), saying Ecer was taken at gunpoint and had not been heard from since Friday. The PKK has not claimed responsibility. The military General Staff confirmed Ecer’s abduction on its website.