In Turkey: Jets hit Kurdish militant targets

Russian Federation is yet to take necessary steps as to the Turkish stream.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures to supporters during an “antiterorrism” rally in Istanbul on September 20, 2015.

Erdogan’s target was clear to all: the pro-Kurdish opposition, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), that had helped strip the ruling AK Party of its majority in June. The weeks leading up to the November 1 national elections will undoubtedly be marred by more violence and increased tensions, the extent of which will play no small rule in determining the future of this country.

The AKP won three decisive general election victories in 2002, 2007 and 2011 but was stripped of its overall majority in June after losing support to a pro-Kurdish party.

It was the HDP that thwarted the AKP’s ambitions, by winning 80 seats.

Following the breakdown of coalition talks during the summer, Davutoglu was tasked with forming an interim government to run the country until the next election.

Violence has consumed large parts of Turkey’s southeast as the military battles the PKK in the Kurdish strongholds of Cizre – considered the center of Kurdish resistance – and Diyarbakir, besieging the cities and placing them under a curfew. This culminated in a ceasefire.

But polls show the AKP still struggling to win back voters.

The young man’s path tells the story of how Turkey’s 40-year war with Kurdish militants has now become even more complex, with seemingly innumerable groups, multiple front lines and criss-crossed relationships among allies and enemies. More than 50 protesters were killed.

Erdoğan, however, used the attack as an excuse to launch a crack down on terrorism that has ignored ISIS, but targeted left-wing and Kurdish activists, including HDP members. The peace process can not succeed in a climate of domestic intimidation in Turkey. “We are very anxious that more civilians will get killed”. Riots and demonstrations were initially sparked there not by events in Turkey as in the past, but rather by the suffering of fellow Kurds in Kobani, Syria, who were being besieged and massacred by ISIS while the Turkish army stood idly by just miles away across the border. Although Turkish military forces were able to establish tenuous daytime control of much of this region, at night, the PKK reigned and soldiers were forced back to their barracks.

The government responded with live fire against unarmed protesters and more mass arrests, including several HDP co-mayors. They argue that with both sides becoming polarised, the conflict could ultimately lead to the fragmentation of the Turkish state.