Turkish cop kept from own wedding because of terrorist threat

A TURKISH policeman missed his own wedding party after being denied permission to leave his station in the southeast, where Kurdish rebels have killed scores of security force members, local media reported on Monday.

Ahmet Karavelioglu, 25, had received the green light from his paramilitary police unit to attend the celebration in southern Osmaniye province on September 18, Dogan news agency reported.

But on the big day, his sobbing 21-year-old bride Fatma was left to welcome guests at her parents-in-laws’ alone, after Karavelioglu’s superiors decided the road from his station on the border with Iraq was unsafe for him to travel.

Video footage released by Cihan news agency showed the betrothed, in full white wedding regalia with a garland of flowers in her hair, standing weeping in the midst of dancing revellers.

Nearly 150 soldiers and police have been killed in a string of bomb and shooting attacks since July blamed on the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The attacks, which have been concentrated in the majority Kurdish southeast, are seen as revenge for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s launch of a major “anti-terrorist” offensive against the rebels that shattered a two-year ceasefire.

On Monday, Turkish war planes pounded militant positions in the southeast during a raid, killing five suspected PKK members, the army said.

Terrorism concerns ... People wave Turkish national flags during an "anti-terrorism" rally in Istanbul as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presses a major offensive against Kurdish rebels. Picture: Ozan Kose/AFPSource:AFP

F-16 fighter jets destroyed fuel and ammunition depots in the remote Hakkari province, on the border with Iraq, the general staff said in a statement on its website.

“Five terrorists have been neutralised,” the army added.

The sortie was the second in under a week, coming five days after the air force strafed PKK targets across the border in the mountains of northern Iraq, in an operation that killed at least 55 militants, according to the military.