A roadside bombing by militants of outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Tuesday night killed the wife and baby of a Turkish soldier in the southeastern province of Hakkari, the local governor’s office announced.
The bomb exploded when a car carrying the civilians drove through the Yüksekova district. The mother, Nurcan Karakaya, died on the spot, while her 11-month-old son, Mustafa Bedirhan Karakaya, succumbed to his wounds at Yüksekova State Hospital.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported that an operation to apprehend the PKK militants was under way in the region.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the funeral of Nurcan Karakaya and her son in Sivas province on Wednesday, saying he would take steps to reinstate capital punishment in Turkey. “You know my feelings about the death penalty. I would approve it if parliament were to pass the law again,” Erdoğan told the attendees of the funeral. Erdoğan also pledged to fight the PKK “until the last terrorist dies.”
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU, has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people.
