PKK ends unilateral truce in Turkey

The strongman of Turkish politics for more than a decade, Erdogan has always been pushing for a new constitution to transform his post into a powerful US-style executive presidency.

The dangers of Turkey slipping back into all-out war are real, as evidenced by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) decision on Thursday to end a unilateral ceasefire announced before the polls.

The pay-off came on Sunday when the votes of Turks who fear Kurdish separatism replaced the Kurdish votes that the AK Party lost last June.

The AKP’s unexpectedly large victory has raised concern that Erdogan will resume pursuing his constitutional ambitions. After that vote, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu could not produce a coalition government that could win a majority.

Erdogan’s opponents – from liberal secularists suspicious of his Islamist ideals to left-leaning Kurds who blame him for resurgent violence in the southeast – were stunned by the AKP’s strong election victory, which defied forecasts by pollsters and even the party’s own strategists.

“An issue like the presidential system can’t be decided without the nation”. A sluggish economy is among Turkey’s major challenges. “Taking into consideration the results of the November 1 election, this is something that will be settled by asking the people”, Kalin said.

“The operations against the terror group were not linked to the election, they will continue”, he told broadcaster NTV in an interview, saying it was necessary for the PKK to halt fighting and leave Turkey for talks to restart. If sweeping amendments to the constitution that were proposed in 2014 were to pass, they would strip a few of the executive power from the parliament while increasing the power of the presidency. In the wake of horrendous suicide bombings in Turkey’s towns, including a double bombing in Ankara which killed 102 participants of a rally organised by the main Kurdish party, HDP, a wave of hysteria has spread throughout the country. The AKP won half the votes on Sunday to take 317 seats in the 550-member parliament on Sunday – still short of the 330 needed to change the constitution. The HDP became the country’s third largest party, the Right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) won only 41 seats compared with 80 in June while the Left-wing Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) won 134 seats, up from 132. Extremist violence is spilling over from across the Syrian border. Turkey is the conduit through which hundreds of thousands of desperate people are fleeing, en route to the Balkan states and ultimately northern Europe – to say nothing of the refugee population already hosted by Turkey. “There was no word on Israel, or Jews as a threat or lobby that want to harm Turkey”, as there have been from AKP officials in the past, she said.

Four PKK militants were killed on Tuesday after clashes with the Turkish security forces in southeastern Turkey.