8 additional PKK terrorists surrender in Turkey's southeast

Eight more PKK members were added to the 979 who have surrendered voluntarily to security forces in Şırnak over the past two years.

“The number of terrorists who have come out of hiding and surrendered to security authorities while acting in the separatist organisation from 21 March 2013 to 28 October 2015 in central Şırnak and its districts, has increased to 987,” said the governor's office in Şırnak, a province standing on the border with Iraq.

According to the governor, anti-terror prosecution has proceeded judicial authority against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members, who surrendered after deserting from the outlawed organisation.

When a terrorist surrenders of his own free will, he has a chance to benefit form a law exempting him from punishment if he was not involved in any attacks in Turkey.

The PKK is listed by the US, Turkey and the EU as a terrorist group. Its bloody campaign to declare Kurdish self-rule in the southeast has claimed the lives of around 40,000 people since 1984.

The PKK violence in Turkey has resumed in the wake of suicide boming in the town of Suruç on July 20, which left 32 dead and 104 others injured. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an arch-foe of the PKK's offshoot in Syria, has claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing, which has consequently led to a sharp escalation in hostilities between ISIL and Turkey.

A ceasefire had been declared at the end of October 2012 but it was broken when the outlawed organization resumed its attacks following the bombing in Suruç. Turkey's retaliatory strikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq and areas near its border with Iraq began on July 23, a day after two police officers were found dead in their home in Şanlıurfa, in the southeast, in an attack later claimed by the PKK.