An investigation of a PKK terrorist attack that took place in eastern Van province on Monday revealed that the vehicle used in the attack belonged to the Water and Sewerage Administration (VASKİ) in Van Municipality, which is ruled by the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), a regional affiliate of the pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
Security forces revealed that the vehicle was rented to Naci A., who works in VASKİ and captured wounded in the operation. Forces have also found two pistols and two grenades in the vehicle. While three PKK members were killed in the clashes after terrorists opened fire at police officers, a security source, who spoke to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said that a police officer was also injured.
In April, security forces revealed during operations that PKK terrorists used garbage trucks belonging to DBP-run municipalities for recruitment and carrying bombs in the Nusaybin district of southeastern Mardin province.
Southeastern municipalities administered by the DBP have been accused of aiding and abetting the PKK's urban war strategy of digging trenches and establishing roadblocks to claim control of cities. Heavy equipment belonging to the municipalities was also put at the disposal of the PKK, according to reports. The municipalities were criticized for not deploying firefighting teams to areas hit by PKK attacks.
Following these developments, a report by the Prime Ministry in January questioned how these municipalities are spending state funds and said that funds may have been funneled to the PKK or at least toward support for its propaganda in the region.
The report highlights a bloated rate of personnel employed by the municipalities, despite little investment in public services, raising suspicion of links between municipality personnel and the PKK.
DBP-led Diyarbakır Municipality sends funeral coach for Vezneciler bomberElsewhere, media reported that DBP-led Diyarbakır Municipality sent a funeral coach to the funeral of Eylem Yaşa, a terrorist from a PKK splinter group, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) who claimed the bomb attack in Istanbul on June 7.
The municipality was at the center of criticism previously for Co-Chair Gültan Kışanak's statements in which she glorified the PKK's self-rule efforts in southeastern provinces. "If the state detains my district mayor, then I also promulgate self-rule. The self-rule demand of these people is a political demand," she said in a statement in August.
Six police officers and five civilians were killed in the explosion that hit the city's Fatih district at Vezneciler metro station close to Istanbul University as a riot police shuttle bus was passing, injuring 51 others.
The splinter group previously claimed responsibility for an attack in Ankara that killed 35 civilians in the capital on March 13, another car bombing in the capital that occurred in February that killed 29 people and a Bursa suicide bombing that injured 13 in early May.
Previously in April, DBP-led Batman Municipality in the southeast sent a funeral coach for three terrorists killed in the Sason district in the province. Along with the terrorists' funeral, PKK-supporters were also carried to the cemetery on buses belonging to the municipality.
