With the attention of international community focused on the devastating earthquake in Van, Turkish authorities are intensifying struggle against PKK, expanding operations in the territory of Iraq, according to the head of European Integration NGO.

As Karen Bekaryan told a news conference in Yerevan, Ankara operations against PKK remind the annihilation policy of Ottoman Turks towards Armenians. “In the early 20th century, Turkish authorities carried out their plan of ethnical cleansing on the backdrop of international issues and a war. Clearly, in modern days, Turkish government applies the same principle to Kurds,” the experts said.

At least 217 were killed and more than 1,000 people injured when a powerful earthquake struck Turkey, collapsing dozens of buildings and pulling down phone and power lines in the southeast of the country, officials and witnesses said. More than 1,000 people are feared killed in the earthquake. Another magnitude 6.1 earthquake, which was the second to rock the country was registered about 20 km (12 miles) from the city of Van at the depth of some 10 km (6.2 miles).

Turkish tanks and armored vehicles crossed into northern Iraq headed in the direction of a Kurdish militant camp, Turkish security sources said Monday, Oct 24. The armored column was headed in the direction of a militant camp at Haftanin, around 20 km (12 miles) from the Habur border post, and near the Iraqi city of Zakho.