On the night of October 19, 2011, the militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) staged a terrorist attack against the Turkish armed forces, killing 26 and wounding 22 Turkish servicemen. The four-hour assault took place in eight remote army outposts in the Yuksekova and Cukurca districts of the Hakkari province of Turkey, near its border with Iraq.
The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union (EU), Turkey and other nations. Since 1980s, over 30,000 people have perished in terrorist attacks launched by the PKK against Turkey. While the party claims to represent interests of Turkey’s Kurdish minority, its separatist claims supplanted by its terrorist agenda have been strongly rejected by the absolute majority of Turkish Kurds. The latter have been closely integrated into the diverse cultural ethnoscape of Turkey as well as its economic and political structure.
Describing the latest PKK attack as outrageous, President Obama stated that the U.S. will continue to cooperate with the Turkish government to “defeat the terrorist threat from the PKK and to bring peace, stability and prosperity to all the people of southeast Turkey”. The EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, condemned the “shameful terrorist attacks in Turkey by the PKK in the strongest terms”.
Members of the Orange County Turkish-American Association (OCTAA) join in condemnation of the PKK terrorism, and offer condolences to the families of victims and the Turkish nation.