JINHA

AGIRÎ – Turkish soldiers opened fire on civilians in the eastern province of Ağrı in Northern Kurdistan yesterday evening, killing one civilian and wounding another. A HPG guerrilla also lost his life in the clash.

In spite of the ongoing peace process in Turkey, Turkish troops launched an operation targeted at guerrillas of the HPG (People's Defense Forces) in the foothills of Mt. Tendürek, in Ağrı Province, yesterday evening.

Civilians in the area were planning a tree-planting event in Yukarı Tütek village, organized by the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and Democratic Regions Party (DBP). As the group set out from the local town of Diyadin, they found the road to the village blocked. Soldiers told them entrance to the village was forbidden.

"The soldiers told us there were clashes in the area," said Nuri Şahin, the DBP party co-chair, who was part of the group heading for the tree-planting event. "There were four military helicopters circling overhead, but in the area we were in we didn't hear sounds of clashes."

A group of civilians headed into the rural area to prevent a human toll to the military operation. That was when Turkish soldiers opened fire on the crowd from a military helicopter.

Cezmi Budak, former district co-chair for the Diyadin area, died in the attack. MEYA-DER representative Cenap İlboğa was wounded. As the group of twenty people scattered into two in the wake of the attack, soldiers also detained six civilians. Tensions remained high between soldiers and villagers in the rural area.

In the evening, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) politicians on the scene reported that one HPG guerrilla member also lost his life. Four Turkish soldiers were wounded, according to Turkish military officials.

The Turkish General Staff's official announcement stated that the tree-planting event would have involved "propaganda for an illegal organization" and "repression regarding the candidates citizens support in the elections." They claimed that clashes started when the soldiers' were opened fire on, contradicting civilian eyewitness accounts.

(fk/cm)