Turkey: Governor dies from wounds after PKK attack

A district governor in southeastern Turkey, who was wounded by an attack linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, died early Friday in a hospital where he was being treated.

Muhammed Fatih Safiturk, governor of Derik district in the Mardin province, was injured on Tuesday when PKK militants fired a rocket launcher targeting the district governorate building.

Safiturk had recently been appointed as the Direk city Mayor following the detention of the previous mayor from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) for his links with the militant group.

Many civilians had also been injured in the attack and the governorate building was partially destroyed.

The attack follows the arrest earlier this month of two joint leaders of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP) along with at least 10 MPs because of their reluctance to give testimony for crimes linked to “terrorist propaganda”.

Following the failed coup of 15 July, the Turkish government has dismissed dozens of elected mayors in Kurdish areas and replaced them with its own appointees. The dismissals have been met with widespread protests by Kurdish groups in southeast Turkey.

Turkey’s peace process with the PKK began in the first three months of 2013, after nearly four decades of struggle in which an estimated 40,000 lives were lost.

The PKK resumed its armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015 following bomb attacks on Kurdish activists, after a ceasefire agreement with Ankara that had been in force for roughly two years.

Since then, PKK attacks have killed around 700 security personnel and claimed the lives of many civilians, including women and children, while thousands of PKK militants were killed in army operations.