JINHA

AGIRÎ – Kurdish and Turkish women politicians warn that the Turkish military operation on Mt. Tendürek in the province of Ağrı was an attempt by the AKP government and the military to create massacre for their own political aims.

Civilian and former Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) regional director CezmiBudak and one HPG guerrilla were killed in the operation, in which hundreds of Turkish soldiers were deployed in what the guerrilla command has called a "pinpoint raid." On Saturday, soldiers were airdropped into a region long controlled by guerrillas.

The İmralı Delegation, the group of opposition party members and civil society members meeting with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, is expected to arrive in Ağrı province today to investigate the incident.

"This fire is burning everyone," said SebahatTuncel, the co-speaker of the Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK). She said that the official announcements from Turkish President Erdoğan and the Turkish Army General Staff have tried to spin the incident to appeal to nationalist sentiments. She says it's clear that the operation was designed to break the ceasefire.

"When there's a ceasefire and soldiers are dropped in a position like this—if that's not producing the grounds for a clash, what is?" she asked.

Sebahat, a member of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) aiming to mount a serious charge to the AKP in Turkey's June Parliamentary election, says that she has seen the ruling AKP mount similar staged military operations and provocations in previous election years.

Sultan Ulusoy, the general chair of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), also condemned the incident, calling it "bloody politics."

The soldiers were airdropped into guerrilla areas with little hope of escape; some had to be evacuated by civilians. Sultan noted that the AKP and the military could not have expected anything but a massacre on both sides to come out of such an operation and accused them of "doing politics with death."

Sultan said that the headlines of newspapers linked to the government easily showed the effect the AKP was trying to produce, with the media attempting to spin the event to gather nationalist votes.

(ekip/fk/cm)