Kurdish unrest looms large ahead of Turkey’s polls
TURKEY: Mounting Kurdish defiance against Ankara has marred the
run-up to Turkey’s June 12 polls as a rare peace initiative lies in
tatters, threatening to re-ignite the country’s 26-year conflict.
So-called “civil disobedience” protests simmer in the mainly Kurdish
southeast, widening a confidence gap with Ankara amid a renewed military
onslaught on the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and deadly
PKK attacks on police despite a truce the rebels had declared last year.
On a quest for a third straight term in power, Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan declared recenty that “there is no longer a Kurdish
problem” in Turkey, further dashing hopes of a reconciliation he had
promised two years ago. A series of EU-inspired reforms have widely
broadened cultural freedom for Turkey’s Kurds in recent years: they can
today broadcast in Kurdish, teach their language at private courses and
use it in political life.
But the Kurds now want autonomy and the PKK appears bent on pressing
the demand with arms.
Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who retains his influence despite
being behind bars since 1999, warned last week that “all hell will break
loose” unless sporadic contacts officials had had with him in prison are
upgraded to full-fledged negotiations for a solution. Spearheaded by
their political leaders, Kurds now openly embrace the PKK, which Ankara
lists as a terrorist group, demonstrators pelt police with petrol bombs
in almost daily unrest and the faithful hold prayers outside mosques,
shunning government-appointed imams.
“We have reached a point of no return... Our people have overcome
fear,” said Kurdish lawmaker Emine Ayna, campaigning for re-election in
Diyarbakir, the main city of the southeast.
Ankara’s so-called “Kurdish opening” — announced in 2009 in a bid to
cajole the PKK into laying down arms — had raised unprecedented optimism
for a peaceful end to a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives. The
heaviest blow to Kurdish hopes came last year when local mayors and
activists were rounded up, paraded in handcuffs, and put on trial as
part of a massive probe into a purported PKK-controlled network, called
KCK.
Hundreds of Kurds have ended up in jail in the investigation, still
going on with frequent police raids across the southeast.
Diyarbakir, Friday, AFP |
