The clashes between the Turkish army, police and special forces and their Kurdish citizens escalated after Kurdish guerillas responded back to Turkish government’s attacks.

After reliable reports of Kurds taking over the entire Varto town, a curfew was declared following all night clashes between the people of Varto and the Turkish forces.

News agency Dicle Haber Ajansi reported that the HPG guerillas representing the people’s forces of the region took over the town and stopped all traffic between its neighboring towns of Mus, Karliova and Erzurum. Varto’s citizens also dug trenches in the streets of the town to prevent the Turkish forces from raiding and attacking the residents.

After losing the majority and the government the outgoing AKP party decided to start a war against its own citizens, the Kurds, to force the country into a chaos. Planning on hiding behind the chaos and accusations of “terrorism” against the Kurds, AKP is playing with fire by starting a civil war. AKP’s plan will commence with associating the so-called “terrorism” actions of the Kurds to its rival Kurdish electoral party HDP. By doing so AKP will try to eliminate the Kurdish party HDP which received 13% of the votes from an early election it tries to impose on the country. If its plans materialize and the rival Kurdish party HDP is eliminated from participating in the democratic process AKP will try to grab their votes by escalating its pro-Islamic rhetoric prior to the elections.

Reacting on Kurdish people’s defense measures against the government’s effort to wage a civil war, the Governor of Mus declared a curfew in Vatro that went into effect at 8:30AM until further notice. During this time the Turkish state has escalated the raids and attacks against the Kurds accused of being members of the Kurdish organization PKK.

During the curfew the Associate Mayor of Varto Sabite Ekinci talked to the daily Evrensel where she reported that heavy clashes were taking place and that the Turkish army was amassing in the outskirts of town getting ready for an attack. She indicated that if the army raided the town, there could be huge numbers of civilians massacred.

Ekinci also reported violent clashes continuing all day and night in the vicinity she had taken cover in. “The entire town is under heavy attack. Many neighborhoods are under the control of the HPG guerillas. Trenches are everywhere. We are hearing reports that the police and the military have retreated to their barracks” she said.

The Associate Mayor of Varto reported they were confined inside and were unable to go out and see for themselves. She said she was not even able to go to the local government office and although they were situated near downtown the sound of guns never stopped all night long. She also stressed, “There are a lot of HPG guerillas downtown.”

August 16, 2015

Sendika.Org (Mehmet Bayram)