Kurdish–Turkish conflict

Turkey will ask French officials to find perpetrators of recent attacks on the Turkish community by PKK supporters, diplomatic sources said on April 9. 

Turkey's Ambassador to Paris Ali Onaner will meet French officials and also request that France provide better protection for the community, according to Turkish diplomatic sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Turkish cabinet members, political party representatives, and presidential officials offered their condolences late on April 7 to the families of soldiers who were killed in the Operation Olive Branch zone in northern Syria by the PKK terrorist organization.

A Turkish court on April 6 sentenced four men to life in jail over a 2016 suicide bombing in the heart of Istanbul that killed 12 German tourists and was blamed on ISIL. 

The blast ripped through Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet square in January 2016 - near the iconic Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, among the world's most visited tourist sites.

Turkey will continue anti-terror operations with getting them "intensified," the nation's defense minister said on April 3.

"Until when? Until the last terrorist is neutralized. Thus, we will save our noble nation from the terror scourge that has been going on for many years and we will ensure security," Hulusi Akar said.

Three PKK terrorists were neutralized by Turkish intelligence forces in northern Iraq last month, security sources said on March 27.

Turkish police early on March 21 detained Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who was staging a protest in the parliament.

Gergerlioğlu was released on March 21 after giving his statement to the police.

Gergerlioğlu refused to leave parliament after he was stripped of his status and immunity as a lawmaker on March 17.

Turkish police detained three top district officials of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) among 35 people in an operation, state media said on March 19, after a court case was opened to close down the HDP.

The U.S. said on March 17 that it is "closely following events" in Turkey, where the parliament revoked the seat of a lawmaker from the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

HDP supporters at an anti-government march after the arrest of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democtaric Party HDP parliamentarians, 18 June 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/SEDAT SUNA

Turkey's state prosecutor filed a case with the constitutional court demanding the closure of the  Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) party, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on March 17.