TURKISH Kurds marked the 31st anniversary on Saturday of the start of the armed struggle for national rights, as the prospect of peace further receded.

The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), a sister organisation of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), celebrated the August 15 1984 attacks on two police stations that began the PKK’s armed campaign.

The attacks were led by Mahsum Korkmaz, known as “Agit,” who was killed less than two years later by Turkish forces.

In a statement, the KCK executive council co-presidency said: “The spirit of Mahsum Korkmaz, who led the 15 August initiative, has become the spirit of the entire people of Kurdistan. It has demonstrated to the entire world that the peoples of these lands, which have historically been the cradle of humanity, have their own will and say.”

Three Turkish soldiers were killed on Saturday when PKK guerillas detonated a bomb as their vehicle was passing.

The attack on the road between Bingol and Erzurum was the latest PKK operation since a recent resumption of fighting between security forces and the guerilla group.

Ongoing negotiations with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan were cut off last month after the PKK responded to an Islamic State (Isis) suicide bombing of a socialist youth league gathering in the southern town of Suruc by shooting two police officers.

The government has been accused in the past of aiding Isis in northern Syria. Ankara retaliated by bombing PKK targets in northern Iraq and southern Turkey and rounding up scores of suspects.