Turkish Kurds call for self-rule as fighting continues

Kurdish groups in southeastern Turkey have called for self-rule, separate from Ankara, as heavy fighting between them and the Turkish Army continues.

Over 200 Kurdish militants were killed on Sunday during a security operation by the army.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had cancelled a planned meeting with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on Saturday, saying its politics were rooted in violence.

The call came at the tail end of a summit of the Democratic People’s Congress (DTK), a coalition of non-governmental Kurdish groups.
“To form a democratic autonomous region including one or several neighbouring provinces, one needs to take into account their cultural, economic and geographic affinities,” said Hatip Dicle, Leader of Kurdish Democratic People’s Congress.

The final resolution of the meeting called for the formation of autonomous Kurdish regions, including several neighbouring provinces.
The army said in a written statement that more than 200 Kurdish members had been killed over the last two weeks. Tank fire and explosions have rocked Cizre, a town in the southeastern province of Sirnak, where a curfew has been in place for 13 days.
A local resident said mosques and homes had been damaged by mortars.

"They look like they are fighting against a state. They hit mosques and houses with mortars," Aziz Onat said.
Three soldiers were also killed in a bomb attack in the city that day by the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which is classified by the EU and US as a terrorist organisation.

For the past three decades Ankara has been trying to end the separatist insurgency of the PKK. A two-year ceasefire between Kurdish members and Ankara fell apart in July, plunging the southeast back into a three-decades-old conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people.
Leading labour unions and professional chambers in Turkey have called for a one-day strike on Tuesday to demand peace, in protest against the government-led military operations.

A two-year ceasefire fell apart in July, returning the southeast to a state of war in which more than 40-thousand people have been killed.