JINHA

NEWS CENTER – Civil society groups and opposition political parties are calling the attempted massive military operation against guerrillas in Turkey's Kurdish Ağrı province on Saturday a "provocation" intended to create a media event that would gain votes for Turkey's ruling AKP.

Civilians and opposition groups: 'the operation was designed for casualties'

With the opposition party Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) set to pose a challenge to the AKP in the upcoming election and the Kurdish peace process at a critical point, Kurdish groups and civil society groups in Turkey are saying that the operation in Ağrı was intentionally planned to create casualties.

This was also the spontaneous reaction of the people in the province of Ağrı on Saturday. When they saw hundreds of heavily armed Turkish soldiers being deployed in the guerrilla-held zone of Mt. Tendürek, which the Turkish army had not entered in years, they immediately traveled to the scene to put themselves, as civilians, between the two opposing sides and force a ceasefire. That was when Turkish soldiers opened fire on civilians from helicopters, killing local man and former Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) activist Cezmi Budak.Local MEYA-DER activist Cenap İlboğa was also injured.

"When the guerrilla saw that the people were being attacked, they went to the scene with the goal of defending them and stopping the attacks," said Congress of Free Women (KJA), a women's group that has advocated for the peace process, in a statement. That was when a HPG guerrilla was killed. "The real goal of this operation was to capture guerrillas in a state of ceasefire and thereby sabotage the peace process." The statement accused the AKP of attempting to sabotage the recently advancing peace process through "artificial movie screenplays."

At Cezmi's funeral, thousands honor commitment to stopping the massacre

Yesterday, thousands bid farewell in the town of Diyadin to Cezmi Budak. Following a religious ceremony at the Budakhome, local people bore Cezmi's coffin on their shoulders to the district cemetery, chanting “murderer state”, “murderer Erdoğan”.

According to Kamuran Yüksek, co-chair of the opposition Democratic Regions Party (DBP), who traveled to Ağrı for the ceremony, the operation saw 250 soldiers deployed on the night of April 10, including 15 soldiers airdropped directly into guerrilla-held zones. Kamuran said that the government intended for the soldiers to die in order to gain votes for the AKP. The party's other co-chair, Emine Ayna, spoke in Diyarbakır at a rally for HDP candidates yesterday, calling on the people to "not give permission to these massacres."

HDP politicians, who had scheduled such meetings to introduce their 550 candidates for Parliament across Turkey yesterday, stressed that they would "not give permission for the country to be drawn into chaos," in the words of HDP General Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş, speaking before thousands in Istanbul. He said that the AKP was aiming for as many dead bodies as possible to come down from Mt. Tendürek that day and that the mothers and fathers of the soldiers deployed in the operation "need to know what happened in Ağrı."

Guerrilla command: Turkish soldiers fired the first shot

Turkish mainstream media have claimed that the guerrilla started the operation, yet local eyewitnesses say Turkish soldiers intentionally invaded a guerrilla-held area.

The guerrilla People's Defense Central Headquarters Command stressed in a statement that Turkish soldiers fired the first shots, at 3.a.m. on April 11.They emphasized that the guerrilla forces have been abiding by the ceasefire since March 21 2013, whereas the Turkish army has recently been creating controlled incidents as part of the AKP's new policy. The Command called the operation a "pinpoint raid."

Government statements have also claimed that the upcoming spring festival in the region would involve guerrillas coming down to force local people to vote for "other" parties (likely implying the HDP).

"It is quite out of the question for the guerrilla, who are currently in an inactive position, to join any festival or event," said the command."Besides, it is not within reason that they would threaten and force the local people… to vote [for the HDP]." The statement noted that the local people in the area already manifest grassroots support for the HDP.

(nt/cm