PKK ‘police unit’s’ traffic control investigated
ŞIRNAK – Doğan News Agency – 26.6.2013 – The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) so-called police unit, “The Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement (YDG-H),” has carried out a traffic control in the southeastern province of Şırnak’s Cizre district, while the Şırnak Governor’s office launched an investigation in response.
As Turkey’s “peace process” efforts to end three-decade long clashes in the country between the Turkish Army and the PKK have undergone a slowdown, a group of PKK militants held a ceremony in Cizre declaring their foundation on the basis of the need for “public order” and “self-defense.”
Some media reports showed yesterday photos of a military ceremony held on June 23 by YDG-H delivering diplomas to the members whose faces were covered with scarves.
The group also carried posters representing the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan. The group then burned car tires on Nusaybin and İdil streets in Cizre and checked the IDs of drivers. The Şırnak Governor’s office today made a press release saying an investigation was started regarding the reports. “Our struggle will continue against this sort of actions which are conducted by dark circles intending to ruin the normalization process and peace,” the statement read. The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said his party’s city branch was also investigating the issue.