Condemnation Of Terror

On July 22, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) attacked two police officers in Ceylanpınar. They were just resting in the house they share after working a 24-hour shift. The PKK militants came and shot them in the back of their heads as they were sleeping. The PKK claimed responsibility for killing the two officers and said they were killed to avenge the bombing in Suruç, attributed to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
After two days, they attacked two more police officers in Diyarbakır. A police officer was killed and the other critically injured in the attack while they were patrolling in the district of Şehitlik. The officers had received a call for help regarding a traffic accident, which turned out to be a trap.
On July 25, three police officers and a civilian were injured when assailants in the Okmeydanı district of İstanbul attacked them. They were immediately hospitalized and by chance, they survived.

That same night, two soldiers were killed and four injured when a car bomb exploded in the Lice district of Diyarbakır. A noncommissioned officer, İsmail Yavuz, and a specialized sergeant, Mehmet Koçak, were killed by the PKK in a car bomb attack. A few hours later, in Şırnak's Cizre district, tension ran high after a group of PKK supporters gathered to protest the ongoing operations of the Turkish Armed Forces. According to a Doğan news agency reporter, an individual in the crowd fired a gun, but the bullet hit another protester, seriously injuring him. The next morning, it was declared that he died while being transferred to a major hospital.

The next night, İstanbul police captured six PKK suspects in outfits worn by militants. The police department declared that they were about to attack the Esenyurt Police Station with Molotov cocktails, as members of the PKK had done perhaps more than a hundred times before. A police officer, Muhammet Fatih Sivri, was fatally injured by a gunshot from an unknown attacker in İstanbul's Gazi neighborhood.

In İzmir's Narlıdere district, PKK members hurled a Molotov cocktail at a public bus. The driver opened all the bus doors and directed the passengers to leave the vehicle immediately. By chance, nobody was hurt this time, but I remember the beautiful 17-year-old Serap Eser's burned face after a public bus she had been riding was attacked by Molotov cocktails. Her doctors said 40 percent of her body was burned and she passed away a week later in incredible pain.

On July 27, the gendarmerie commander of Malazgirt district of Muş province, Maj. Arslan Kulaksız, was killed while driving with his wife and daughter. His wife was also lightly wounded in the attack. What kind of excuse can legitimize such an attack? Can this attack help Kurds to solve their problems? Can't they see that, even during war, it is not acceptable to attack non-combatants? Just visualize yourself in the major's seat, someone comes and shots you near your wife and daughter. What kind of hate does that reflect?

A soldier was wounded the same day in a bomb attack against an armored patrol car in Van. The next day a specialist sergeant, Ziya Sarpkaya, was killed in an attack in downtown Şemdinli, while he was standing in front of a bank in civilian clothes. He was shot in the head. In another incident on the same day, three police officers from the traffic unit of the Nusaybin Police Department of Mardin province were also wounded in an PKK attack. On July 29, a specialist sergeant and two other soldiers were wounded in an attack by terrorists in Ağrı province's Doğubeyazıt district.

Two days ago, PKK members attacked Adana's Pozantı District Police Station. Two policeman died. Yesterday, they attacked a gendarmerie outpost in the Doğubeyazıt district of Ağrı using a tractor loaded with two tons of explosives. The suicide attack resulted in the deaths of two soldiers and 24 heavily injured people. Everyday, this terror will carry on like a nightmare.

You cannot say: ‘My violence is good and yours is bad.' Terror is terror and you cannot legitimize anything with it. We will not survive this mess until Turks and Kurds join together to condemn terror.

GÜNAL KURŞUN (Cihan/Today's Zaman)