The Turkish authorities have vowed to escalate the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) following the deaths of a 25-year-old woman and her 11-month-old baby, who have been formally declared martyrs and given an official funeral, which became a platform for America-bashing.
The pair perished in Hakkari, a rugged mountainous province bordering Iraq, when an improvised explosive device planted on a roadside went off. Nurcan Karakaya and her infant son were riding back from a surprise visit to her husband, a noncommissioned officer stationed in the mainly Kurdish region, which has seen violent clashes between the Turkish army and PKK militants slipping in from their bases in Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran.
