ISTANBUL, Turkey – Although the exact details surrounding last week’s attack by Kurdish guerillas that left 13 Turkish solders and seven guerillas dead remain unclear, it is widely believed the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) is responsible.
During a 14 June military operation in the Diyarbakır province, PKK members are believed to have thrown hand grenades in the direction of Turkish troops. The explosions then caused a fire that engulfed the densely forested area, resulting in the fatalities.
The attack took place during an ongoing parliament boycott by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), a leftist, predominantly Kurdish party that advocates Kurdish civil rights.
The boycott began after the nation’s elections oversight body prevented six elected BDP deputies from entering parliament over alleged PKK links. The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union, and the United States. Analysts, however, have not identified any direct connection between the fatal attack and the boycott.
Immediately preceding the attack, BDP officials were in negotiations with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to end the boycott. BDP's chief demand was the change or removal of aspects of the Turkish Anti-Terror Law, which illegalize providing assistance and spreading propaganda supporting terrorism. BDP believes the wording of certain provisions in the law is too broad. Government officials have used the law to try many Kurds, including children, caught merely chanting slogans that can be interpreted as supporting the PKK.
Cengiz Çandar, a columnist for the Turkish Radikal daily, characterized the decision to ban the six BDP deputies as “an invitation to Kurds implying, 'Don't come to Parliament, head to the mountains.'” The statement references the northern Iraqi mountains where PKK guerillas often launch their attacks.
Shortly after the attack, an umbrella organization for pro-Kurdish civil society groups declared the “democratic autonomy” of Kurdistan, a large swathe of southeastern Turkish territory. Fırat News Agency, which is based in the region and has alleged ties to the Kurdish movement and the PKK, reported recently the organization, called the Democratic Society Congress, views democratic autonomy not as separatism but merely means to attain Kurdish rights.
In years past, government crackdowns on Kurdish guerillas have left significant causalities in their wake. More than an estimated 40,000 people have died in the conflict, since PKK members took up arms in the mid 1980s. Following last week’s attack Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signaled the government’s continued resolve.
The Turkish military began a new offensive a day after the attack aimed at striking near the PKK's bases along the Iraqi border. Erdoğan said the army will “make the PKK pay a heavy price for this attack.”
“If they want to make peace, there is only one thing for them to do: the terrorist organization must lay down arms,” he said in a nationally televised address on 15 July.
The international community has joined Erdoğan in condemning the attacks.
“We stand with Turkey in its fight against the PKK,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a public statement following the attack.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen released a statement claiming, “such heinous attacks have no justification,” adding that “NATO allies stand in full solidarity against the scourge of terrorism.”
The Turkish public also denounced the attacks, calling for an end to PKK violence. Demonstrators marched in over a dozen cities, numbering in the thousands in each. While marching they chanted for revenge against the PKK and remembering the “13 martyrs”.
The BDP's office in Ankara was also bombed on the night of 14 July. The office was closed at the time and there were no injuries.
And two days later, Aynur Doğan, a Kurdish singer, was forced off stage during a jazz festival performance in İstanbul. Concertgoers harassed Aynur for singing in Kurdish, demanding she sing in Turkish. Despite the fact that approximately 20 percent of Turkey's citizens are Kurdish, it was banned to sing Kurdish at concerts between 1982 and 1991. Many Turkish people still object to hearing Kurdish being sung. Aynur eventually left the stage, after audience members began throwing cushions and bottles toward her.
“The mentality of those that threw objects at me at last night's concern is, in my eyes, a bitter blow against this country's unity, brotherhood, and efforts to be democratic,” Aynur said in a public statement on her website.
Abdullah Öcalan, the convicted leader of the PKK, issued a statement on Wednesday, claiming the real problem in the country is the unresolved nature of the Kurdish issue.
“In my view, it is the same fire that burns the soldier and the guerilla,” he said.
Öcalan had previously been conducting talks with the Turkish state in order to reach a peaceful end to the conflict. In his statement, he said the attacks would not deter peace negotiations.
Amid speculation that Öcalan no longer has control over the PKK and the attack was conducted without his authorization, he declared that he “alone can give the order for the PKK to permanently lay down its arms,” thus securing him a role in the impending peace process.
Last Thursday's clash was the most fatal for the Turkish army since 2008 when 17 soldiers were killed near the Iraqi border.
