Getty Images photographer Cagdas Erdogan spent some time with members of the PPK's youth wing in Nusaybin, south-eastern Turkey. The Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement, known as YDG-H, was founded in 2013 by youth PKK sympathisers. His photographs show armed militants getting ready to carry out an attack on security forces in Nusaybin.

Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement YDG-H
An armed YDG-H member gets ready to attack Turkish security forces in the south-eastern Turkish city of Nusaybin Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images
Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement YDG-H
A member of the YDG-H prepares weapons in a house in Nusaybin Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images
Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement YDG-H
A machine gun is propped against a wall in a house occupied by YDG-H members in Nusaybin Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images
Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement YDG-H
A member of the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement secures a neighbourhood in Nusaybin Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images
Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement YDG-H
YDG-H members prepare food under portraits of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images
Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement YDG-H
A member of the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), a youth division of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK, stands guard with his MG3 automatic rifle in a house in Nusaybin Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images
Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement YDG-H
A member of the YDG-H pose with his MG3 automatic rifle in a house in Nusaybin Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images
Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement YDG-H
Members of the Revolutionary Youth Movement get ready in a house in Nusaybin Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images
Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement YDG-H
Members of the Revolutionary Youth Movement get ready in a house in Nusaybin Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images
Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement YDG-H
A YDG-H member prepares a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) in a house in Nusaybin Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images

In the most recent incident in the town, a car bomb and rocket attack on a traffic police station in Nusaybin killed two police officers and wounded around 35 people. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bears the hallmarks of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Earlier this week, residents in nearby Cizre returned to their homes to find most had been destroyed by shelling after authorities partially lifted a 24-hour curfew imposed to facilitate security operations against the PKK in the city. The Nusaybin bombing came a day after two female militants were shot dead after attacking a police station in Istanbul in a separate incident that underscored the volatile situation in Turkey.

The PKK, considered a terror organisation by Turkey and its allies, is fighting for autonomy in Turkey's mostly Kurdish south-east. The organisation resumed its attacks last summer after a shaky truce with the government collapsed. Ankara has responded with a heavy-handed crackdown, imposing curfews and carrying out deadly military operations condemned by human rights groups.

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