Turkey: soldier killed on the border by fire “assessed to have come from Iran” – investigations open in Ankara and Tehran

The fire that killed a Turkish soldier on the border with Iran on October 31 is assessed to have come from the Iranian side. This was stated on Thursday, November 5 by Turkey’s Ministry of National Defence in written answers to journalists’ questions after the weekly press briefing. Ankara and Tehran have started separate investigations and, according to the ministry, are cooperating to clarify “all aspects of the incident”.

The dead man is contract infantry soldier Yusuf Said Ünlü. The ministry’s post on the briefing, given by spokesman Rear Admiral Zeki Aktürk, says he was wounded by fire during an intervention in an illegal border crossing incident at Yüksekova in Hakkari province and succumbed on October 31 despite efforts to save him. He had been airlifted to the Hakkari State Hospital. The incident took place in the area of responsibility of the Engin Magin border post.

A meeting with Iranian officials on the spot

The ministry says that immediately after the soldier’s death a judicial and administrative investigation began and that Turkish authorities contacted Iranian ones. Officials of the two countries met on the spot on Tuesday, November 3. Iranian authorities have also opened their own judicial and administrative investigation.

The mountainous province of Hakkari borders Iran and Iraq and was for decades a battleground between the Turkish army and the PKK. On Iranian soil operates the PJAK, an organisation linked to the PKK which, unlike the PKK, has not announced it is joining the dissolution process and which had waged an armed struggle against Tehran until the 2011 ceasefire; see our report on the IRGC captain killed in the Qandil mountains. The Turkey-Iran border is about 535 kilometres long and has for years been used for drug smuggling, human trafficking and illegal migration. Along it Ankara has raised a concrete wall about 380 kilometres long, while in Van province, where most of it lies, security measures are particularly strict.

665 arrests on the border in a week

At the same briefing the ministry announced that within one week 665 people were arrested on the border trying to cross illegally, among them eight members of terrorist organisations, while another 1,766 were prevented before crossing. Since January 1, arrests total 15,294 and preventions 59,621. The ministry also said six more PKK members surrendered in the past week and expressed condolences for professional sergeant Oğuz Şahin, who died on November 2 after falling ill at the Alparslan post sector, in Çaldıran in Van province.

Greece was not absent from the briefing either. Under the implementation plan of the Confidence-Building Measures, see our report on Chania 2027, the Commander of the Hellenic Tactical Air Force and a delegation are visiting from November 3 to 5 the Commander of the Turkish Combat Air Force, while the Turkish Naval Cadet School hosts on Thursday a mixed swimming meet with athletes from the military academies of the two countries.