JINHA

ANKARA – The İmralı Delegation has released a report based on their observations in Ağrı Province, the site of a Turkish military operation over the weekend that many groups in Turkey have denounced as a provocation. The report concludes that the military operation launched on guerrilla positions in Mt. Tendürek was a violation of the ceasefire between the PKK and the military.

The İmralı Delegation is a group of members of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and civil society organizations who have recently begun to take part in the peace and resolution process taking place between the state and the PKK, meeting with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and taking part in peace process discussions over the past months.

The report, which explains in detail the sequence of events on the day of the Turkish military operation and subsequent clashes, confirms eyewitness accounts that have previously appeared in the media about that day. The report indicates that soldiers opened fire on civilians who traveled to the site of clashes and that the soldiers wounded in the operation only survived because civilians evacuated them.

The report found that Turkish soldiers were positioned in the area several days before a planned tree planting festival that the state claims was to be a site for unspecified guerrilla "threats" against civilians, indicating a premeditated nature of the attack.

The operation was likely timed to coincide with election campaigns in Turkey, says the report. Recent polls have indicated with increasing certainty that the opposition HDP is likely to pass Turkey's 10% electoral threshold and enter the Parliament. The report calls the attack "part of a strategy to hinder the rise of the HDP."

The report, noting that the operation was evidently a violation of the ceasefire that has been in effect since Newroz 2013, called for the immediate formation of a Monitoring Committee to oversee the state of the peace process between the state and the PKK.

"The peace and negotiation process is too precious to be wasted for the elections," said the report, calling on the Turkish state to respect the ceasefire immediately.

In conclusion, the report further blamed the recent Internal Security Law passed by Turkey's Parliament, which extends broad powers (including opening fire on civilians) to police and other security forces, for the loss of life in Ağrı. The report called for the government and NGOs to initiate a legal and administrative process regarding the incident.

(nt/cm)