Turkish fighter jets carried out air-strikes on supposed positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Dağlıca district of southeastern Hakkari province near the Iraqi border late Oct. 13. The Turkish General Staff said the targeted PKK forces had been involved in "assassination, armed incidents and attacks on security bases" after last week's nationwide Kurdish protests. A Dağlıca military guard post had been attacked with rocket-propelled grenades by the PKK for three days, Turkish authorities said. Clashes were also reported between the military and PKK fighters in the Tunceli area of east-central Turkey. The fighting is the first since the PKK's imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan called a unilateral ceasefire in March 2013 to mark Kurdish New Year as part of a wider peace process.
After news broke of the Turkish air-strikes, PKK sympathizers gathered outside the British Parliament in London, demanding that the UK arm the YPG militia defending the ISIS-besieged Kurdish town of Kobani in northern Syria. While media reports have widely portrayed the recent Kurdish protests as demanding Turkish military intervention against ISIS, a representative of the London demonstrators said: "Our demand is just for Turkey to open the border with Kobani. We don't trust them to be part of the coalition fighting ISIS." (Hurriyet Daily News, BBC News, Rudaw, Oct. 14)
