ANKARA (Sputnik) – Ankara launched its anti-Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) campaign in Sur/Diyarbakir on November 28, 2015. A curfew entered into force the next month amid a wave of violence that saw security officials and separatist fighters die.
"Sur operations are completed," Interior Minister Efkan Ala said, as quoted by the Anadolu news service.
The Turkish General Staff estimates over 1,000 Kurdish militants have been killed since mid-December. Kurdish activists, in turn, argue that most of the dead were civilian victims.
Mayor of Sur Firat Anli estimated last month around 50,000 residents have fled the violence.
Representative of the Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party to the United States, Mehmet Yuksel, argued in an interview with Sputnik last week Ankara was conducting an "ethnic clearance" campaign to drive the approximately 16.6 million Kurds out of southeastern Turkey.
