Turkish military building high-altitude base against PKK militants

The Turkish military is constructing a new military base in the mountainous area of the country’s southeastern province of Hakkari in order to better monitor the movements of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants, and prevent any possible act of terror.

Turkish security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the base is being built at an altitude of 2,400 meters in Mount Balkaya and lies close to the border with Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

PKK militants regularly clash with Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of Turkey attached to northern Iraq.

Turkey, along with the European Union and the United States, has declared the PKK a terrorist group and has banned it. The militant group has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984.

A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against the PKK positions in the country as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.

More than 40,000 people have been killed during the three-decade conflict between Turkey and the autonomy-seeking militant group.    

Meanwhile, Turkish security forces have arrested a German national in the southeastern province of Sirnak as he was trying to cross into Syria.

Security officials said 28-year-old Patrick Kraicker was detained on March 14 in the Silopi district of the province, situated some 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) east of the capital Ankara.

Kraicker said during his questioning that he wanted to cross into Syria to join the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militants, whom the Ankara government is currently a cross-border military offensive against in Syria’s northwestern region of Afrin.

SS