10 detained after two Turkish soldiers killed in attacks

MUŞ/HAKKARİ - Anadolu Agency

DHA photo

As tension in the country skyrockets, 10 suspects have been detained in the investigation of a gendarmerie officer who was murdered in Turkey’s eastern province of Muş, while a specialized sergeant was killed in a separate attack in the southeastern province of Hakkari. 

Armed attackers opened fire on Major Aslan Kulaksız, the commander of the gendarmerie garrison in the Malazgirt district of Muş, on July 27, while he was traveling with his wife and child in his car.

Muş Provincial Governor Vedat Büyükersoy said Kulaksız succumbed to his wounds at the Malazgirt State Hospital.

On July 28, security forces detained a total of 10 suspects within the scope of the investigation into the killing of Kulaksız, while a ceremony was held at the Muş Gendarmerie Command. 

A day after the killing of Kulaksız, a specialized sergeant was killed during an armed attack in Hakkari’s Şemdinli district.

Specialized sergeant Ziya Sarpkaya, who was dressed in plain clothes, was the target of an assault in front of a bank in Şemdinli at around 11:30 a.m. He was immediately taken to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries in the afternoon.

The Turkish General Staff launched a statement about the killing of Sarpkaya, where they accused the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for the assault. It stated an assailant, who had his face covered, had shot Sarpkaya in the head while he was withdrawing money from a bank. 

An operation has been launched to capture the assailant.

Meanwhile, Turkish General Staff said in a written statement that two F-16 fighter jets targeted a mountainous region in the southeastern province of Şırnak’s Uludere district on July 28, around 3:00 p.m., after PKK members had allegedly attacked a border gendarmerie force in the region earlier that day.

Following the July 20 suicide bombing in Suruç which killed 32 people, tensions have risen between the Turkish state and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with the latter stepping up attacks on police and troops while Turkish jets have targeted the group’s camps and its followers have been rounded up by police anti-terror units.

On July 22, two police officers were found shot dead in southeastern Şanlıurfa province. The PKK claimed responsibility for the incident.

On July 23, a policeman, Tansu Aydın, was killed and a colleague was wounded in a gun attack in Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakır. Anadolu Agency announced July 28 that a total of four suspects, including three minors, were arrested in the killing of Aydın. 

A non-commissioned Turkish officer, Yalçın Nane, was killed and two Turkish sergeants were injured when gunfire believed to be coming from the direction of Syria hit uniformed personnel in Turkey’s southern Kilis province on July 23.

The PKK is listed by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU as a terrorist organization.

Turkish security forces have detained 1,050 suspects across 34 Turkish provinces since the nationwide “anti-terror operations” in the country began early July 24, the Turkish Prime Minister’s Office of Public Diplomacy said in a statement July 27.

Most of the suspects allegedly belonged or had links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the PKK and the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).