Turkey ignores Kurdish forces unilateral ceasefire, escalates attacks: HPG balance sheet shows

Turkey has continued to launch a barrage of attacks against the Kurdish guerilla-held Medya Defence Zones, bordering southern Turkey and northern Iraq, during the month of March, despite the unilateral ceasefire announced by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on 1 March. Releasing its monthly balance sheet, the PKK’s armed wing, the People’s Defence Forces (HPG), which ordered its units to strictly observe the ceasefire, said the figures show Turkey intends to continue the war, rather than end it.

The HPG’s monthly balance sheet details that the Turkish Armed Forces carried out 276 aerial strikes, 20 attacks using chemical weapons and banned explosives, and deployed over 11,000 shells during the month of March, while the Kurdish HPG-led units carried out 13 defensive interventions.

The HPG’s stressed that all its guerrilla forces have complied with the ceasefire order, but that the Turkish state continued its attacks unabated. The 13 interventions were legitimate defensive actions, the HPG noted, with a cessation on all offensives.

"It is very clear that a power that has carried out so many attacks does not want the war to end, but to continue. If this were not the case, it would not have carried out air and ground attacks against a force in a ceasefire position. This shows that there is a position and insistence in favour of the continuation of the war, not its cessation."

Among the 13 defensive actions was the shooting down of a Turkish Akinci drone conducting a high-altitude reconnaissance mission over the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s Qandil (Qendîl) mountains on 16 March, serving as a direct scouting threat.

The Kurdish forces also noted that the Turkish attacks were launched during the holy month of Ramadan.