04 January 2016•Update: 04 January 2016
ISTANBUL
Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
Turkish dailies on Monday mainly dedicated their front pages to the killing of a woman on Sunday in the Sur district of southeastern Diyarbakir province – an area which has been under curfew nearly a month.
"Hit during breakfast," was VATAN's headline read, reporting that mother-of-three, Melek Alpaydin, was hit in the head by shrapnel during breakfast in a clash between PKK terrorists and Turkish security forces.
According to the paper, a mortar round hit Apaydin's apartment leaving a hole in the exterior wall of the building. It was not clear where the shell had been fired from but police have launched an investigation into the incident, the daily said.
CUMHURIYET ran with the headline: "We escaped from death." The paper reported that more and more families were leaving Sur, sheltering with their relatives in the wider province or hiring apartments nearby districts.
The PKK – considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU – resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in late July.
A total of 228 PKK terrorists have been killed in counter-terrorism operations in southeastern Turkey since Dec. 15, according to the Turkish General Staff.
According to a statement on the Turkish Armed Forces' website, most of the casualties took place in the Cizre and Silopi districts of Sirnak province and in Diyarbakir's Sur district where the operations continue amid a curfew.
Out of the 228 terrorists, 161 were killed in Cizre and 22 others in Silopi, while 45 more were killed in Sur.
In other news, Turkish dailies covered rising tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran over the Saudi execution of a Shia Muslim cleric, Nimr Baqir al-Nimr.
HURRIYET called the deteriorating ties "dangerous," reporting that the execution of 47 prisoners on Saturday created fear of a sectarian war between predominantly-Shia Iran and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia.
Following the incident, protestors stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the Saudi consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad. Demonstrators set fire to the embassy building before being evicted by Iranian security forces.
“Madness” was YENI SAFAK's headline.
Iran warned that Saudi Arabia would pay “a heavy price” for the executions while Saudi Arabia cut ties with Tehran, giving 48 hours to all Iranian diplomats to leave the country, the daily said.
Before his arrest in July 2012, Nimr led mass protests against the Saudi authorities in the kingdom’s eastern Qatif province.
In economic news, financial newspaper DUNYA covered Development Minister Cevdet Yilmaz's speech on a recent minimum wage hike, quoting him as saying it will "accelerate Turkey's economic growth".
On Dec. 30, the Minimum Wage Determination Commission agreed to an increase of 30 percent, to 1,300 liras ($446) per month.
Before the November elections, the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party government had pledged to raise the minimum wage in Turkey to 1,300 Turkish liras per month from 949 Turkish liras ($326) per month.
