Two Turkish police killed in gun attack blamed on PKK

The attack is the latest to be blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is engaged in an escalating cycle of violence with the security forces. The attacks ended a two-year cease-fire between the Turkish government and the PKK, effectively derailing a projected rapprochement.

Earlier this month, the Thai government deported 109 Uighurs back to China, prompting fierce criticism from Turkey, the United States and rights groups. “The main objective is to prevent the formation of a Kurdish entity in northern Syria”, he said.

Erdogan says Turkey is an important crossroad across Eurasia, and geographically a major hub in the Silk Road Economic Belt.

Turkey’s parties have until August. 23 to agree a working government or Erdogan could call a new election.

“HDP passing the threshold and the AK Party losing its parliamentary majority are being used as a pretext for war”. He said the rebels were armed with automatic rifles and hand grenades.

The move came two days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Kurdish politicians should be prosecuted for links to terror groups.

“Turkey’s sensitivity about Chinese territorial integrity was [also] mentioned in the meeting, as well as not accepting any terrorist incidents inside China”, the source said.

The Turkish president also met with Premier Li Keqiang and head of parliament Zhang Dejiang for talks that focused on trade and fighting terrorism in the Middle East and China.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter called the Kurdish region’s security forces, or peshmerga, a model for the kind of force needed to defeat Islamic State during a visit to the region’s capital, Erbil, last week.

“Turkey has now decided to fight directly with the Kurds but uses ISIL as a cover to hide its real intentions”, he said.

“What’s more, when there are those who tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea to get into Europe, the attitude they have or the groundwork they lay is such that these people end up drowning in the sea”, he added. “Jarablus is the only obstacle for this unity”, Demirtas said, referring to a Syrian town on the edge of the proposed “safe zone”.

A new wave of violence included the killing of three Turkish troops that the army said was carried out by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, the deadliest such attack on the security forces since the crisis began last week.

Engaging in conflicts on two fronts is a high-risk strategy for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member, leaving it exposed to the threat of reprisals by jihadists and Kurdish militants. If the party were to win two thirds of the seats, it could also change the constitution and fulfil Erdogan’s ambition of creating a more powerful executive presidency. A fragile ceasefire had been holding since March 2013.

The PKK has said the air strikes, launched virtually in parallel with strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria, rendered the peace process meaningless but stopped short of formally pulling out.