The People’s Defence Forces (HPG), the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), have published a war balance sheet detailing Turkish military attacks against their forces in the month of April.
In the balance sheet, the HPG press centre notes that, even though their forces have been in a ceasefire position for two months, the Turkish military continues its attacks, which resulted in the death of four guerilla fighters in the last month. These fighters were all killed in the Medya Defense Zones, which lies along the Turkish border in northern Iraq. The HPG underlined that guerilla units active in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast did not suffer any casualties during this month.
Stating that despite continuing its attacks, the Turkish Armed Forces have not been able to make advances against the PKK guerillas, the HPG states:
“Unable to overcome this glorious resistance, the invaders once again violated the rules of war and used chemical weapons, banned explosives, and banned phosphorus bombs against our forces.”
The HPG’s monthly balance sheet details that the Turkish Armed Forces carried out 88 aerial strikes with both fighter jets and helicopters, seven attacks using chemical weapons and banned explosives, and deployed 9,693 shells during the month of April, while the HPG units carried out 17 defensive interventions, during which one Turkish soldier was killed and five more were injured.
The HPG had urged all its units to follow the unilateral ceasefire decision published by the PKK on 1 March, after imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s call for “Peace and a Democratic Society” to pave the way for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey.
