3 soldiers killed in bomb attack in eastern Turkey

“If America continues to back Turkey’s policies it is possible it will lose the Kurds“, he said.

Mr Bayik accused Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of deliberately engineering the breakdown of the two-year ceasefire for electoral reasons.

Bozkir is on a tour of EU members to explain the recent renewal of operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU – and the apparent end of peace negotiations officially initiated in 2013. But it has launched more than 400 strikes against the PKK in and outside Turkey, he said.

Turkish authorities declared an open-ended curfew in the southeastern town of Varto on Sunday, the first such restriction since clashes with autonomy-seeking Kurdish militants flared last month.

A civilian minibus driver has died after he was shot by Kurdish separatists in northeastern Turkey on Monday, local officials said.

Earlier this week, Turkish warplanes pounded 17 targets in the border province of Hakkari as part of the crackdown on the PKK, which has claimed responsibility for the bombing of a police station in Istanbul. Turkish fighters were set to join the campaign. “This is a statement that does not have any rhyme or reason and is vulgar”, he said, according to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet. Turkey denied it. It was precipitated by terrorist attacks carried out inside Turkey by Islamic extremists.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu are to meet Thursday for what is seen a make-or-break meeting on forming a coalition. Security forces detained 1,302 people.

“The PKK has not provided evidence that the policemen had links to ISIS“, Celik said.

“It is clear by now that the HDP… can not pursue a policy independent of the PKK”, Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin wrote in the pro-government Daily Sabah on August 4.

“Today, the United States began flying manned counter-ISIL missions from Incirlik Air Base, Turkey”.

Senior government officials say pledges made by him during the peace process have gone unfulfilled, notably the withdrawal of PKK fighters to bases in northern Iraq, and that until those are honoured, Ocalan has no further role to play. The official asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. But it seems like in the three weeks since then Turkey has struck the enemies of ISIS much more fiercely than it has hit ISIS. Erdogan was hoping that his AKP would win a big majority when Turkish voters went to the polls in June to elect a new parliament. However, no one has been allowed to meet him since April.