Kurds accuse Turkey of violating ceasefire

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has accused the Turkish military of violating a ceasefire agreed under a two-year-old peace process after the military launched air strikes on its guerrillas in southeast Turkey.

The PKK‘s military wing said in a statement on its website that its forces had not suffered casualties during the strikes in the Daglica area of Hakkari province. Media reports had earlier indicated the air strikes were at the weekend.

Turkey has refused to join the US-led coalition fighting against Islamic State, saying it must also confront Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Turkish government views Syrian Kurds with suspicion because of their close ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and Europe for its 30-year armed campaign for self-rule in Turkey. An estimated 200 PKK rebels are fighting in Kobani alongside Syrian Kurds.

Turkey has been criticised after up to 13 injured Kurdish fighters died during delays at the border.

Doctors, parliamentarians, ambulance drivers, security guards, lawyers and activists say between seven and 13 wounded Kurdish fighters died after being kept for hours at the Mursitpinar border gate last week during the worst fighting.

Several bled to death, including from bullet wounds to limbs that would have been survivable with treatment, doctors said.

"We have had trouble at the border gate and several people were not brought to the hospital in time, due to avoidable obstacles. Due to these delays, 12 people lost their lives, all in the last week to 10 days," Ibrahim Ayhan, a lawmaker in Turkey's pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, said on October 12.

Authorities cited a variety of reasons for delays lasting five or more hours, like security risks or a lack of permission, Ayhan said. He helped negotiate new procedures with the governor; no one has died waiting at Mursitpinar since Oct. 11.

A spokesman for the governor did not respond to phone calls. The Health Ministry did not respond to written questions.

With medical supplies depleted in the war-ravaged north Syrian town of Kobani, Kurdish activist Blesa Omar rushed three comrades wounded in battle against Islamic State fighters straight to the border to dispatch them to a Turkish hospital.

He spent the next four hours watching them die, one by one, from what he believes were treatable shrapnel wounds, while Turkish border guards refused to let them through the frontier.

"To me it is clear they died because they waited so long. If they had received help, even up to one hour before their deaths, they could have lived," said Mr Omar (34) an ethnic Kurd originally from Iraq who holds Swedish nationality.

“Once the soldiers realised they were dead, they said, ‘Now you can cross with the bodies.’ I cannot forget that. It was total chaos, it was a catastrophe,” he said, choking back tears.

Deaths of wounded fighters held up at the border have become another emotive charge in a litany of Kurdish grievances against Ankara, which Kurds accuse of turning its back on their kin fighting across the frontier against Islamic State.

The anger has brought violence to Turkey itself: Turkey’s 15 million-strong Kurdish minority rose up last week in riots in which at least 35 people were killed.

Turkey says it has been generous to Kurds, taking in 200,000 refugees from the Kobani area since Islamic State fighters launched their offensive four weeks ago.

But as the United Nations warns of a potential massacre in Kobani in full view of Turkish tanks that have done nothing to help protect the town, Kurdish anger threatens to unravel a peace process to end a decades-long insurgency in Turkey itself.

Kurds who have fled Islamic State attacks for shelter in Turkey say they have faced intimidation, including arbitrary detentions last week.

Some 70 doctors from Turkey and Europe have descended on Suruc to help treat the wounded. Adnan Amir, an endocrinologist from Stuttgart born in Syria, said he saw 10 deaths, including civilians, caused by border delays on October 9th and 10th.

“Most of the cases I saw were at hospital, where people bled to death. On one occasion I travelled in an ambulance to the border and witnessed a case in which a bullet wound in the leg had caused haemorrhaging and death,” Mr Amir said.

Another doctor at Suruc said he saw a total of 13 dead fighters whose passage to hospital had been hampered, including five on the night of October 8th.

“Patients not being allowed across the border was our biggest challenge. They would arbitrarily be blocked. We would face insults when we went to collect them,” said the doctor, who added that the situation had improved in recent days.

Despite the delays, dozens of fighters have been treated at the overstretched hospital in Suruc near the border and in other cities. Turkey bristles at the suggestion it is doing nothing. Turkish authorities say inundated health workers have cared for 600 or more refugees from among the 200,000 that fled since September 19.

Agencies