Bitcoin Forum

Chris Kilford: Could Turkey be headed towards civil war?

CHRIS KILFORD

Published on: December 25, 2015 | Last Updated: December 25, 2015 9:38 AM EST

In scenes reminiscent of Syria’s five-year-old civil war, fighting between the Turkish government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey has increased dramatically in the last few months, leading to concerns that Turkey — a NATO country — could be headed for a civil war of its own.

Indeed, the conflict has moved from Turkey’s rural areas to its cities. Hundreds have been killed and some 200,000 people have been forced to leave their homes. Schools, government buildings, shops and houses have been destroyed and infrastructure crippled.

Major towns such as Cizre, Nusaybin and Silopi are under curfew and an additional 10,000 police and troops armed with artillery and tanks have been deployed. If Turkey was not a NATO member, one suspects that the United States and France would have already sent their ambassadors to the region by now in a show of support for the Kurds.

The fighting between the Turkish government and the PKK has been ongoing since 1984. But a few years ago, when the Turkish government initiated a courageous political process to end the decades-long armed conflict, there was great hope the security situation would dramatically improve. And, for a while it did.

In 2013, I travelled to southeastern Turkey and met with many Turkish and Kurdish political leaders. I will never forget the mayor of Hakkari, who leaned across his desk and dramatically said to me, “welcome to Hakkari, the very centre of 30 years of war.”

It’s a fight that has cost the Turkish economy more than a trillion dollars during the past three decades – money that could have been better spent on development than war. However, the Kurdish people were subjected to a systematic and often brutal assimilation policy after 1923. The outcome was the PKK.

From the perspective of many people I met in 2013, the time to achieve a lasting peace had finally arrived. Turkey had a strong majority government ready to negotiate with the PKK. The Turkish economy was performing well with money available for development projects. The military, unusually, appeared willing to support the government’s peace overtures and many Kurds were simply fed up with the never-ending unrest.

Now, everything has changed.

Instead of going ahead with democratization efforts that would have enabled the easing of Kurdish grievances, the government re-started the fighting in late July 2015, the day after a group allegedly linked with the PKK killed two policemen.

A more reasonable government, one might have expected, would have taken the time to discuss its options. In this case however, in an instant the gloves were off.

If the Turkish government believes it can win a war with its own people it is simply being delusional. Combing through some old files in my Ankara office a few years ago, I came across a 1991 Turkish military briefing for foreign attachés that claimed the military had already broken the back of the organization. They were wrong 25 years ago and will continue to be until some sort of negotiated settlement is achieved.

These are, unfortunately, dark days for Turkey. International media outlets paint a picture of a government that is attacking its own people, that is insincere about fighting ISIS, that shot down a Russian fighter jet for no good reason, and that drags its feet when it comes to closing its border with Syria.

Oh, it also violates Iraqi sovereignty by stationing troops in that country without permission, has failed to stem the refugee flow to Europe, jails its journalists and, according to Amnesty International, mistreats refugees.

Of course, as a complete picture of Turkey it’s unfair. But perceptions are everything and the Turkish government needs to work quickly to repair its international reputation. Initiating a ceasefire with the PKK would be a very constructive first step.

Dr. Chris Kilford (then Colonel Kilford) served as Canada’s Defence Attaché to Turkey from 2011-2014. He recently became a fellow with the Queen’s Centre for International and Defence Policy.

http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/chris-kilford-could-turkey-be-headed-towards-civil-war

Turkish media report that a passenger aircraft landing at Diyarbakir airport came under fire.

http://www.sozcu.com.tr/2015/gundem/pkklilar-yolcu-ucagina-ates-acti-1017095/

Conflict News @Conflicts
VIDEO: Clashes continue in #Cizre #Turkey - @evrenselgzt

5:31 PM - 24 Dec 2015

https://twitter.com/Conflicts

When the Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein did the same against the Kurds, the Americans and the British were among the first to react. Remember the Halabja chemical attack in 1988? But now, when Turkey is perpetrating even worse atrocities, the NATO is remaining silent. It is not a civil war. It is just a one-sided genocide against unarmed people.

Well, I think it started long ago and is now seriously escalating. In a few weeks garbage media will be unable to ignore it anymore. It´s good to try to be ahead of the curve, so starting this thread.

Locals: Turkey’s Crackdown on Kurdish Towns Increasingly Violent
Troops Shelling Indiscriminately Into Curfew Towns

by Jason Ditz, December 25, 2015

While Turkey continues to hype its military operations against towns in the southeast as part of the war against the PKK, with an eye toward “cleansing” the country of PKK separatists, locals complain the operations are increasingly bloody.

To make matters worse, the attacks are largely indiscriminate, with Turkish military forces imposing a full curfew on those towns, and firing against anything that moves. Wounded civilians are basically stuck in their homes, with no way to get to hospitals, and no way for doctors to reach them.

Turkey insists the operations are very precise, and hit militants who are active in affected neighborhoods, but locals point to a growing number of women, children, and the elderly killed in the operations to dispute those claims.

Turkey has been at war with the PKK for over 30 years, but had a ceasefire in place until this fall, when the Erdogan government abandoned the ceasefire and launched a new offensive against PKK targets inside Iraq. This has since escalated, and they’ve ruled out any return to a truce.

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/12/25/locals-turkeys-crackdown-on-kurdish-towns-increasingly-violent/

This not the case of "revenge" for downing SU 24 but the matter of principle that Kurds must win its own state. Russia should supply them with all weapons they need because that brave nation is decimated by superior army force. They must have equal chance to fight sultan's islamo-nazis. What is needed is declaration by Syria, Iraq and Iran to accept Kurds autonomy and provide them with arms. Kurdistan should be proclaimed only after defeating and neutralizing of the Turks and Kurdistan proclamation to become non allied , neutral country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKPC9VIEr5M

:D :D

What a load of crap. Straight out of Turkywood. Pretty well produced though. Good timing, framing, storyline etc.

Everyone know that the Kurds are the most effective and fearless ISIS fighters. Even there women carry guns and fight. Are they not our best middle east ally?

They will be maybe if U.S. "trainers" get to inject their parade ground mentality. You know; marching together in the field in tight and orderly formations so as to be better prepared for I.E.D.´s and suicide bombers.

ISTANBUL–A small Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a blast at Istanbul’s second-largest airport that killed one airplane cleaner, raising concerns about expansion of a conflict that has largely been isolated to southeastern Turkey.

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks said it had fired mortar rounds at Sabiha Gokcen International Airport in an effort to disrupt Turkey’s commercial flights as part of its fight against a military offensive targeting Kurdish insurgents.

“This attack by mortar shells will also be the beginning of our new period of action,” the group said in a statement published by the Kurdish news agency Firat.

If proven true, the attack may signal a new attempt by Kurdish militants to carry their fight for autonomy into Turkey’s major cities.

The Turkish government has said little about last Wednesday’s airport blast, drawing criticism from relatives of the slain airport worker and opposition lawmakers who are demanding answers.

“This is not a banana republic,” one mourner said Thursday at the funeral for Zehra Yamak, 30, the airport cleaner killed at the airport. “How can a bomb explode at the airport? Still, no one has come out and said: ‘This and that happened, that is why the incident occurred.’”...

http://www.wsj.com/articles/kurdish-group-claims-responsibility-for-turkey-airport-blast-1451154534

Also like to mention the PKK uphold their end of the peace agreement back a couple of months ago and It was Erdogan and Turkey that violated it, so Turkey has nobody to blame but itself

Kurdish groups in southeastern Turkey call for self-rule

News | 28.12.2015 | 11:30
 
euronews - Kurdish groups in southeastern Turkey are calling for self-rule.
 
It follows a summit of the Democratic People’s Congress (DTK), a coalition of non-governmental Kurdish groups, and comes as heavy fighting continues in the region.
 
The army is pushing ahead with a security operation in which it says more than 200 Kurdish militants have been killed.
 
“To form a democratic autonomous region including one or several neighbouring provinces, one needs to take into account their cultural, economic and geographic affinities,” said Hatip Dicle, Leader of Kurdish Democratic People’s Congress.
 
The final resolution of the meeting called for the formation of autonomous Kurdish regions, including several neighbouring provinces.
 
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu cancelled a planned meeting with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on Saturday, saying its politics were rooted in violence.
 
For three decades, Ankara has been trying to end an insurgency by fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK – classified by the EU and US as a terrorist organisation.
 
A two-year ceasefire fell apart in July, plunging the southeast back into a conflict that has killed more than 40-thousand people.

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/12/28/kurdish-groups-in-southeastern-turkey-call-for-self-rule.html

Just start seizing the government buildings under crowd's umbrella, that's how new country is created nowadays. This approach works fine, proven by Kosovo and DPR :)

U.S./NATO favorite war marketing ploy "he´s killing his own people" never applies to their allies. It´s their usual double standards.

IF there will be a civil war, I'm sure most people won't fight. People are tired to tolerate all this ignorance. Most people already give up.


That was Apple viral. Apple is the new sponsor of Erdoğan.

http://i.sabah.com.tr/sbh/2015/12/26/650x344/1451108762128.jpg

http://www.sabah.com.tr/gundem/2015/12/26/appledan-erdogana-ozel-mac

Civil war in Turkey? Hey, I'd live to see that. That would make impossible for the NATO to keep on seeing Turkey as a normal and friendly country. I find it shocking that Frau Merkel keeps on visiting Erdogan like he was a nice guy, with the EU handing him money so he can kill more Kurds.

The sad part is that there was elections recently in Turkey, and there's still a majority backing Erdogan. Perhaps most Turks are insane.

The Turkish Kurds should have self-rule, along with the other Kurds as well.. It's probably pointless to hope for Iran to give up what they hold of Kurdistan, but Iraq and Syria have never proven themselves to be fair to their Kurdish minorities and should lose those lands and that population.

Yeah, probably because %60 of people are from right wing and %50 of all people voted for AKP.
German-Turkish relations have a long history so Merkel's visits are not surprising though.

Kurds should have their own country seceding from Turkey. Turkish leaders are barbarians, and Republic of Kurdistan needs to be established. Right inside Turkey.

An independent Kurdistan should contain the ethnic Kurd inhabited regions of Syria and Iraq, in addition to those Kurdish dominated areas of Turkey. Kurdistan is the last stronghold of secularism and progressiveness in the Middle-East (along with the current Syrian regime), and it should be maintained as such at any cost. If Erdogan opposes this, then just send him to some gulag.

Yeah, who will do that? All talk no work done. Free threats. Accept it, he's too powerful. You can't destroy the puppet of US, unless US want it.

'Turkey's governing style unacceptable in EU'

EU Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said Turkey will not join the Union in the next 10 or even 20 years. He added that the country needs to demonstrate that it wants to stick to the values and rules of the organisation.

Well, that´s disappointing. Turkey would be just the perfect addition to the soft underbelly.

The laws and regulations in the European Union are not compatible with those in Turkey. As per the EU guidelines, minority languages must be officially recognized, and every attempt must be made to make them available in the field of education, government, and bureaucracy. And how the Turks are going to implement this, when there is a blanket ban on the usage of the Kurdish language?

you dont know anything about Turkey and its domestic problems. i live in Turkey. Kurdish terrorists are killing turkish soldiers everyday yet  turkish government made a lot law about kurdish civil rights. BUT Turkey are doomed to take serious cautions over this problem. We cant enjoy our soldiers deaths.

At least 10 people were killed and 15 more were wounded this morning in an attack on Sultanahmet, the historic central district of Istanbul, Turkey. According to Turkish officials, a Syrian suicide bomber who may have been affiliated with ISIS or Kurdish separatists was behind the attack.

In a statement this morning, per the BBC, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey is a “top target for all terrorist groups in the region.” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the attacker has been identified as a Syrian born in 1988.

Kurtulmus also noted that most of the victims were foreigners. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement this morning, “We are seriously concerned that German citizens could and probably will be among the victims and wounded. Those affected are members of a German tourist group.”

So far, no terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The New York Times notes that in January of last year a Russian suicide bomber with possible ties to ISIS attacked a police station in Sultanahmet, killing on officer. Three other attacks on Turkey last year were linked to ISIS as well, including a bombing in Ankara that killed over 100 people. The BBC notes that “violence has also soared between Turkish security officials and the PKK Kurdish militants, with a PKK offshoot, the TAK, firing a mortar at Istanbul airport last month.”

http://gawker.com/suicide-bomber-kills-10-in-attack-on-istanbuls-historic-1752443133?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Germany's foreign ministry has on its website (in German) urged German tourists in Istanbul to avoid large crowds and tourist attractions and warned that further violent clashes and "terrorist attacks" were expected across Turkey. BBC

Hundreds flee southeast Turkey warzone as 23 killed, curfew expanded in Kurdish Diyarbakir

Published time: 28 Jan, 2016 04:31

Hundreds of people have fled the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, located in southeastern Turkey, as authorities have extended the curfew there after 23 people were killed in street battles, including three Turkish soldiers and 20 Kurdish fighters.

Heavy gunfire continued on Wednesday in the ancient Sur district of Diyarbakir amid clashes between authorities and militants said to be members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been outlawed by Ankara, Turkish Dogan news agency reported.

Three Turkish soldiers were killed in Sur when militants fired on them with rifles and a rocket launcher, Reuters cited security sources as saying.

Turkey’s army also confirmed that it had killed 11 alleged PKK in the town of Cizre near the Syrian border, and nine others in Sur on Tuesday. The Turkish army claims it has killed 134 Kurdish fighters in the ancient Sur district since December. The district has also witnessed severe damage since then.

The 24-hour curfew zone has been extended to five more districts in Diyarbakir, according to the district governor’s office. The curfew bans residents from leaving their homes and forbids observers and reporters from entering the areas when clashes are taking place.

After alleged members of PKK reportedly dug trenches and set up explosive devices, the curfew was put in place “restore public order,” the district governor’s office said.

Local media reports estimate that more than 2,000 people left Sur following the fighting on Wednesday. People were seen fleeing with suitcases, bags, and bedding.

“Turkey’s state early in the morning started to warn people that they have to leave their houses. And right now thousands of people are trying to leave Sur district, the ancient part of the city,” Harun Ercan, a Diyarbakir resident, told RT.

“This armed conflict continues to create new tragedies and these people don’t know what to do. While these operations continue, gross human rights violations are committed by Turkey’s security forces,” Ercan added.

Turkish authorities have introduced curfews in several Kurdish-majority towns since the peace process with the PKK collapsed in the summer of 2015.

Clashes between Turkish forces and Kurdish PKK fighters have been ongoing since July. Turkey’s authorities maintain that all of those killed during the security operations in the country’s southeast have been PKK members.

READ MORE: No terrorists at the table? Turkey ‘threatens to withdraw’ from Syria talks over Syrian Kurds

However, the Turkish Human Rights Foundation reported that at least 198 civilians, including 39 children, have been killed in military operations in the area since August.

Kurds have long been campaigning for the right to self-determination and greater autonomy in Turkey, where they are the largest ethnic minority. In late December, a congress of Kurdish nongovernmental organizations called for Turkey’s southeastern regions to be granted autonomy via constitutional reforms.

Turkish security forces launched a large-scale security operation in southeastern part of the country on December 14.

Human Rights Watch criticized the curfews, stating that they make it impossible to monitor causes of deaths. “Many people have died in circumstances which are extremely difficult to scrutinize because of the curfews,” The Guardian quoted Emma Sinclair-Webb, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, as saying.

https://www.rt.com/news/330394-turkey-people-flee-diyarbakir-kurds/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

It would appear the psychopath Erdogan is going to get the civil war he has always wanted More ethnic cleansing coming your way via Turkey. It's their history!

The civil war has been ongoing for decades. It has ebbed and waned. It has seemed to be ramping up lately and to be moving from rural areas into cities. After ISIS became a big player in the neighborhood it then became an overt and covert ally against the Kurds in Iraq and Syria  and of course this spills into Turkey itself. It´s an escalation. Of course pissing off the russian bear in this situation was probably a terrible idea, unless Ankara wants them to support the Kurds and wants this escalation.

erdogan trying to revenge Kurds.. for fighting and defeating his puppet ISIS terrorists.. There are no good guys on either side

Listen, Kurdish lives are also valuable. You are so concerned about the death of a few dozen or so Turkish soldiers, and at the same time you are completely ignoring the massacre of more than 1,000 ethnic Kurds (most of them civilians) by these same Turkish soldiers. Allow the Kurds to live peacefully in their own villages and you will no longer face rebellion from them.

Turkish foreign policy in the middle east for dummies

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CW_DD13VAAAswlE.mp4

yes it started long years ago but it wasnt started by turkish government .. it was started by a terrorist organisation called ''PKK'' . Turkish forces wants to root away this evil force not innocent people..

How can they separate "evil" and "innocent" people? ~%90 of Kurds support PKK. You can't fight with whole race. I think the problem is normally they can live together but governments don't want them to live together. If Kurds build a new country in Iraq-Syria borders they would want to get some Turkish land too.

I don't think that the NATO will allow the Kurds to have their own independent country. At the most, they will be granted autonomous cantons in Syria, just like what they are having in Northern Iraq. The future of Turkish Kurdistan is even more complex. The Turks will fight tooth and nail to prevent the creation of a Kurdish autonomous territory out there.

Turkey’s urban war leaves thousands of Kurds without homes

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — In his 1853 travelogue about Diyarbakir, German orientalist Julius Heinrich Petermann described how he reached the city after sunset to find the fortress gates locked and had to wait for the morning to enter the city. More than 160 years later, those waiting at the gates of the old walled city — now Diyarbakir’s district of Sur — are its own Kurdish residents, forced out from their homes amid clashes between the Turkish security forces and armed militants entrenched in residential areas.´

On a cold winter day last week, dozens of people — refugees in their own city — waited at the checkpoint at the entrance of Sur, desperate to be let in to take a few belongings from their homes, since they had fled with only the clothes on their backs. The police would not budge, leading one resident to exclaim, “We’ve sheltered the Syrians, but who is going to shelter us?”

Five neighborhoods in Sur have been sealed off under a round-the-clock curfew for almost two months as the police and the army battle militants of the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), the youth wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The rebels have been holding out behind trenches and barricades in narrow residential streets, often planted with explosives and booby traps.

On Jan. 27, the scope of the curfew was extended to six other neighborhoods, where YDG-H militants were found to be holed up. Residents were ordered to evacuate their homes — some by the police, others by the YDG-H — but the sound of gunfire rang out before they were able to leave. The civilians’ flight from the area was a run for their lives.

Ramazan Mutlu, a 65-year-old who waited at the checkpoint on Jan. 29, recounted how the rattle of spades startled him one night around midnight last week. When he went out to check, he saw masked men digging a ditch. He admonished them, but they would not stop. Shortly, the police arrived and the diggers ran away. The police ordered Mutlu’s building evacuated. Some 40 people, all from the same clan, left the three-story building in haste, taking refuge with relatives in other neighborhoods or nearby villages.

“Because they dug trenches, vehicles could not enter the neighborhood. The police told us to leave and come back in the morning to collect our stuff,” Mutlu told Al-Monitor as he waited in vain for the promised permission to go back and collect belongings.

“We are now left homeless. Some of us went to the village; others were scattered around [the city]. … Different people have sheltered me in their homes during the nights. If we can’t take our belongings tomorrow as well, we’ll probably go to the village and become shepherds,” Mutlu said.

He waited some more at the checkpoint, but the police were unrelenting. As Mutlu walked away — probably to look for a place to spend the night — an agitated woman argued with the police. “Let me go and take a blanket at least,” she pleaded in vain.

“We left only with the clothes we had on,” she told Al-Monitor, refusing to give her name or have her picture taken. “My eldest son is doing his military service, and I don’t have a husband. What is a single woman like me supposed to do?”

The woman said the order to evacuate their home, which was on a street where clashes were taking place, came from the police. “There was nowhere for me and my children to go. A charitable man offered us shelter. He gave us a room in his home, but we have no belongings with us. We all sleep on the floor,” she said.

The woman’s long wait at the checkpoint also proved futile. Desperate, she walked away as another woman sought to negotiate with the police. Pointing at her legs, she pleaded, “Look, this is still the pantyhose with which I left.”

Other residents, who lived in a building close to Sur’s gate, said they were ordered to leave by YDG-H militants, who also blew up the building’s electric transformer.

As the crowd at the checkpoint grew, the police announced with a loudspeaker that no one would be allowed to cross and urged the people to disperse. Soon, the crowd dwindled. Mansur Izgi, too, walked away, grumbling. He had hoped to go to Sur to collect the belongings of his parents and siblings, who had taken shelter in his house.

For Izgi, the plight of his family and other Sur residents was little different from that of the refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria. “If they let us go, we’ll take my parents’ belongings and settle them in another place,” Izgi told Al-Monitor. “We’ve become refugees in our own lands. The Syrians came and Turkey took them in, but who is going to take us in?”

In another corner of Sur, throngs of panicked people made their way out, even though the expanded restrictions did not cover their neighborhoods. The exodus was triggered by rumors that the clashes would soon spread to that neighborhood. Better-off residents rented trucks to take along their belongings, while others hurried away with big bundles on their backs. The authorities sought to dispel the rumors, but few seemed to take notice.

Human rights groups estimate that some 30,000 residents of Sur, roughly a fourth of the district’s population, have fled, in addition to tens of thousands more displaced across the mainly Kurdish southeast, where urban clashes have been raging since the summer. According to a report presented at a recent meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party, the clashes in Sur and the towns of Silopi, Cizre and Nusaybin, the main theaters of the fighting, have “affected” 220,000 people out of a total population of 439,000, caused 93,000 people to migrate and damaged 10,300 small businesses. The report said more than 520 PKK militants were killed, but it made no mention of civilian deaths, which the Turkish Human Rights Foundation put at 124 in late December.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, for his part, said last week that 600 families were forced to flee their homes in Sur, promising financial assistance for their accommodations and reconstruction projects for the ancient quarter.

At present, however, the old city remains in the grips of deadly unrest and human suffering. On Jan. 29, the security forces seized the YDG-H’s largest weapons cache so far in a house in Sur. Five soldiers were killed and four others were wounded in clashes in the next two days, mostly by sniper fire.



Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/02/turkey-expanding-clashes-leave-thousands-without-home.html#ixzz3yxli41de

Kurds and Turkish people were always in fight. Kurds are now the only one who is against ISIS. Cities in Turkey are like a bombs now. Kurds,domestic people,terrorists..soon willl be an open war there especially in Istanbul, Izmir and other

I think so. And as ISIS gets defeated in Syria and Iraq they´ll go to Turkey. Which probably won´t be good for stability. Maybe Erdogan´s dream of a Greater Turkey will end in a fractured state.

Turkey is a fractured state. 10 years ago, there was a hope the sad days were over with some autonomy to Eastern areas of Turkey, but it's all gone now. Civil war is back on the agenda, and it will take years before some kind of peace can be achieved, if ever. Besides, things are changing in the South, too. The border between Syria and Irak will never again be what it was a decade ago. I don't know how, but several countries will have to be remapped.

Turkey is deeply different state. You have Istanbul and west coast where are tourism and hotel facilities and this is most civilized part of country. In area of Van lake and near border with Syria and Anadloya well you have customs similar to ISIS, and Kurds. Kurds are only one on a true battle front with ISIS. Now all cities on west coast and Istanbul will be bombs, because of ISIS and all those who wants modern Turkey gone. And Erdogan will open attack Kurds in Turkey

As Syria burns, Turkey’s Kurdish problem is getting worse

By Ishaan Tharoor February 3 at 9:15 AM

Not far from the Turkish border with Syria, another war is raging.

In the heart of the ancient city of Diyarbakir, behind its historic black-stone walls, security forces have been engaged for weeks in clashes with the youth wing of an outlawed Kurdish separatist group. Whole neighborhoods have been sealed off under curfew; tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee.

The mini-rebellion has been echoed elsewhere in Turkey's restive southeast, a region that is home to a majority Kurdish population and that has been in the grips of a low-level civil war since tensions flared last summer. The violence is likely the worst seen in the past two decades.

The Turkish government claims more than 200 policemen and soldiers have been killed since July, while some estimates place the local civilian death toll around that number as well. The Turkish crackdown on the militants — fighters belonging to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK — has led to more than 500 guerrilla deaths.

There's little indication of the hostilities calming. Since a peace process between the two sides fully collapsed last year, separatist-minded Kurds in a number of towns and neighborhoods pushed for de facto autonomy. The predominantly Kurdish border town of Cizre has been a hotbed of unrest and resistance for more than a year now and is now in the midst of an intense Turkish military clampdown.

Rights groups and critics of the Turkish government accuse the state of denying civilians stuck in the siege adequate access to medical care. On Tuesday, the top human rights official at the United Nations also urged Ankara to investigate an incident that occurred last month, which involved the apparent shooting of unarmed civilians, leading to a number of casualties.

Video footage appeared to show a group of civilians moving in front of an armored military vehicle before they "were cut down by a hail of gunfire," said Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

Turkish authorities have previously rejected claims that their security forces were impeding aid to civilians. "They are deliberately not bringing the wounded out," said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, referring to the Kurdish militants holed up in parts of Cizre and other towns in Turkey's southeast.

The PKK's insurgency has blown hot and cold since the early 1980s. It has led to some 40,000 deaths in those years. Under the rule of Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party, some of the causes for Kurdish grievance — including the suppression even of the use of their own language — started to be addressed. But the shadow of the Syrian war has led to a profound unraveling.

As WorldViews noted earlier, the territorial gains made by Syrian Kurdish militias over the past two years had ripple effects across the border. The Turkish government, which has spent decades attempting to subdue Kurdish separatist ambitions, looked on with horror as the PYD, a Syrian Kurdish faction historically linked to the PKK, emerged as a key player in northern Syria. The PYD's role on the front lines of the war against the Islamic State endeared it to the West, including the United States, which gave it aid.

"Ankara’s real fear is that the PYD’s success in Syria will dangerously strengthen the PKK in its fight against Turkey," writes Nicholas Danforth, a Turkey scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center. "For Washington, by contrast, the PYD’s military success confronting [the Islamic State] in Syria remains the group’s main appeal."

This tension is playing out in the current, fitful round of U.N.-brokered talks over the Syrian conflict in Geneva. Turkey insisted that the PYD not be extended an invitation; the United States, an increasingly grudging ally, acquiesced. Russia, whose military intervention on behalf of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad infuriated Turkey, is now also opportunistically cozying up to the Syrian Kurds. It had earlier demanded the PYD be included in the talks.

Ankara casts the PYD as a stooge agent of the Assad regime; the PYD, meanwhile, accuses Turkey of aiding the Islamic State in order to undermine the prospect of an autonomous Kurdish state along its border.

Within Turkey, criticism of the government's actions has led to harsh punishments. Turkish prosecutors are currently seeking life sentences for two prominent journalists who published a story that linked the Turkish government to arms shipments sent to Syrian rebel factions across the border. In a wholly separate case, an academic at a university in Ankara faces seven years jail time for simply circulating an exam question that involved the writings of the PKK's jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.


The escalation of violence and instability in the region has grave consequences for larger crises currently vexing the international community.

"Turkey's domestic peace is not an issue for Turkey alone," Selahattin Demirtas, a leading opposition politician and co-leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party, a leftist, pro-Kurdish party, told reporters in Brussels last week. "It is directly related to the resolution of the Syrian conflict and to the migration problem in Europe."

All the while, resentment and anger is festering on the streets of Diyarbakir and other majority Kurdish cities. The city boasts a huge cemetery for Kurdish youth who have gone off to fight across the border in Syria. A radicalization has set in.

"Many residents of these towns are poor families who were forced to flee the countryside when the conflict between the Kurds and the Turkish state was at its peak in the 1990s," writes Abdullah Demirbas, a former mayor of Sur, the old quarter in Diyarbakir that's now the epicenter of clashes. "Those who are digging trenches and declaring 'self-rule' in Sur and other cities and towns of southeastern Turkey today are mostly Kurdish youths in their teens and 20s who were born into that earlier era of violence, poverty and displacement, and grew up in radicalized ghettos."

Demirbas, a controversial figure in his own right, has seen one of his own sons join the PKK.

"Now a new generation will grow up with the trauma of killing, destruction and forced migration," he writes. "Where will they go? What will become of them?"


Ishaan Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor at TIME, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/02/03/as-syria-burns-turkeys-kurdish-problem-is-getting-worse/

Things have been heating up. Two attacks on the Turkish military yesterday and today. And they seem about to invade Syria. Stay tuned.

kurds are barbarians for me.. they are asking for some rights by using terrorism instead of using peaceful ways.. this is what we hate..

If they blow up soldiers that can hardly be called terrorism. After all the military blows up civilians on a regular basis. Is that terrorism?

 Terrorism - the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.

Yes it is.

Bill Clinton agrees

terror — meaning killing and robbery and coercion by people who do not have state authority and go beyond national borders —

https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/11/30/bill-clintons-world/

 I imagine Bill knows a lot more about terrorism than I but I'll have to take you at your word as the site at the end of this link wants me to subscribe to read the article.  While I appreciate others' opinions, I don't always like to pay for it.

Edit.
Actually that statment looks contrived to protect state-sanctioned militarism to promote American interests on an international level.  So, Bill and I do not agree.

I get this subscription nagging but get to the article. I did register with them maybe that´s the difference. Foreign Policy is the mouthpiece of the CFR so it´s straight from the horse´s mouth I guess.

Thanks! I'll try signing up and see if I can view articles.  I was on my android phone earlier; maybe it will work differently from my desktop too.

It looks obious that the end goal is to get Kurdish people to have their own country, the World is just in a period of massive transformations that's it

Yes, and it´s obvious that by shooting down the Russian plane Turkey helped the Kurds enormously. Now they have both Americans and Russians actively supporting them. It´s strange because it was such a painfully inevitable outcome. Piss off Russia and what does Russia do? That´s right.

I am not very sure about the American support. The PYD/YPG Kurdish faction, which is fighting in Syria is very close to the PKK of Turkey. Their relations with the Iraqi Kurdish factions (which are having friendly relations with both the Turks and the Americans) are not very warm. Remember that PKK is a banned terrorist organization in the United States.

Well, it may be a banned terrorist organization in the U.S. but buddies on another continent and it may not even be official. The U.S. has a very murky history of collaboration with terrorists. Foe can turn into friend practically overnight and vice versa.

Why is Erdogan so upset with Kurds in SYRIA getting some additional rights and support? Erdogan is so set on murdering and oppressing Kurds that he doesn't want them to be free anywhere, even outside of Turkey? To Erdogan, ISIS and Al Nusra are preferable neighbors??

The PKK have been fighting Turkey for decades over the imprisonment of their leader, the Kurds have also been constantly supressed by Edrogan, they've been a state of civil war for some time now Turkey just can't it quiet anymore.

Mostly just watching.

Thanks as always, Coleman, for the info on the PKK vs. PYD/YPG.  It's these little tid-bits that one can dive down into for more detail once tipped off.  I suspect that 'the Kurds' will be a big factor in what comes next for the region.

I've heard going back to the setup for the Gulf-II at least that Israel was providing significant support for 'the Kurds' and had fairly friendly and deep relations even back then.  And, of course, the 'better Middle East' has a 'Kurdistan' which jumps out and grabs the eye due to it's size (and geographical overlap with the current boundaries of important players in the region.)  Thoughts?  Info?

In the various run-downs I've read (in the course of tapping out this post) I don't see any info about the ties between the various Kurdish factions and Israel.  It's possible that there are few or they are gone, or that it is not in the interest of the commentators to discuss them (most leave fairly vacant the relationship between these factions and the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Russia, etc, as well, and I have a hard time imagining that plenty of support or anti-support from these players exist.)

Israel is having good relations with the Iraqi Kurds (Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani factions). However, their relations with the PKK are strained. Considering the fact that the YPG is affiliated to the PKK, I don't think that Israel will be interested in providing weapons or any other form of support for them. During the cold war period, the PKK and YPG were considered as communist organizations, and most of their support came from the USSR and China. However, after the disintegration of the USSR, this support vanished.

Ill-founded delusions of grandeur from Turkey's President Erdogan ...

https://scontent-ams3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/12715657_10153546336429037_2470984080021085473_n.jpg?oh=3cc164d88cf8eb32835806262b552a76&oe=576E185D

I heard and interesting analysis about Erdogan some time ago.  Edmonds is as close to a domain expert as anyone, and Corbett is characteristically informed in my opinion.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxvPfWkYyUo

tldw:  Nobody likes Erdogan and are making ready to punt him.

Not mentioned was Erdogan's behaviour with the MV Mavi Marmara incident.  It was rumored that Erdogan made a credible threat of war against Israel, and from what I could observe, it is not unlikely that he at least came pretty close.  If so, I could imagine a) most people feeling that he is to much of a loose cannon, and b) there might be a desire for some retribution.

Edmonds claims that the Kurds will be used for a time then discarded.  It seems to me that strategically from the standpoint of the West, it might be awfully handy to have a somewhat friendly and effectively autonomous Kurdish stronghold in Eastern Turkey.  Maybe even as formal a 'Kurdistan' as practical even.  The reason for this is that it could be a chronic infection which could cause continuous grief for Iran, Iraq, and Syria.  If that were to be attempted, doing so in association with getting rid of Erdogan and re-evaluating the scope of the NATO arrangements with Turkey could make some sense.

Erdogan is still having wet dreams about the "Greater Turkestan", which stretches from Vienna in the West to Kamchatka in the East, and from Igarka in the North to Soqotra in the South. He plans to unite all the Turkic speaking people, such as the Azeris, Uzbeks, Uighurs, Turkmens.etc. He is still whining about the destruction of the Ottoman empire.

US-backed militia groups now fighting each other in Syria
President Barack Obama's confused strategy in Syria means towns are now being fought over by different US-backed groups

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12166474/US-backed-rebel-groups-now-fighting-each-other-in-Syria.html

FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Regime Change in Ankara? More Likely Than You Think

by MIKE WHITNEY

On Friday, the United States rejected a draft resolution by Russia that was intended to prevent a Turkish invasion of Syria. Moscow had called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to address its growing concern that Turkey is planning to send thousands of ground troops and armored vehicles it has massed on its southern border, into Syria to protect Turkish-backed militants and to block the Kurdish militia, the YPG, from establishing a contiguous state in northern Syria. Moscow’s one-page resolution was a thoroughly-straightforward document aimed at preventing a massive escalation in a conflict that has already claimed the lives of 250, 000 and left the country in ruins.

According to Russia’s deputy U.N. envoy, Vladimir Safronkov, “The main elements of this Russian draft resolution are to demand that all parties refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of Syria, that they fully respect Syria’s sovereignty and independence, stop incursions, and abandon plans for ground operations.”

The resolution also expressed Moscow’s  “grave alarm at the reports of military buildup and preparatory activities aimed at launching foreign ground intervention into the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic.”

There was nothing controversial about the resolution, no tricks and no hidden meaning. The delegates were simply asked to support Syrian sovereignty and oppose armed aggression. These are the very principles upon which the United Nations was founded. The US and its allies rejected these principles because they failed to jibe with Washington’s geopolitical ambitions in Syria.

Quashing the resolution confirms in the clearest terms that Washington doesn’t want peace in Syria. Also, it suggests that the Obama administration thinks that Turkish ground troops could play an important role in shaping the outcome of a conflict that the US is still determined to win. Keep in mind, if the resolution had passed, the threat of a Turkish invasion would have vanished immediately.

Why?

Because the Turkish  “military has publicly stated that it is not willing to send troops across the border without U.N. Security Council approval.” (Washington Post)

Many people in the west are under the illusion that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dictatorial powers and can simply order his troops into battle whenever he chooses. But that is not the case. While Erdogan has removed many of his rivals within the military, the top brass still maintains a certain autonomy from the civilian leadership. Turkish generals want assurances that they will not be prosecuted for war crimes in the future. The best way to do that is to make sure that any invasion has the blessing of either the US, NATO or the UN.

The Obama administration understands this dynamic, which is why they quashed the resolution. Obama wanted to leave the door open so Turkish troops could eventually engage the Russian-led coalition in Washington’s ongoing proxy war. This leads me to believe that the Washington’s primary objective in Syria is no longer the removal of Syrian President Bashar al Assad but the bogging down of Russia in a never-ending conflict.

Just hours after the US defeated Moscow’s draft resolution at the UN,  closed-door talks were convened in Geneva where high-level U.S. and Russian military officials met to discuss the prospects for ceasefire.

The cease-fire, which is typically referred to as a “cessation of hostilities”, is aimed at temporarily stopping the fighting so the battered jihadists and US-backed rebels can regroup and rejoin the war at some later date. Both Moscow and Washington want to deliver humanitarian aid to war-torn cities across Syria, and to move towards a “political transition” although both sides are deeply divided over Assad’s role in any future government. According to the Washington Post:

“One of the many problems to be overcome is a differing definition of what constitutes a terrorist group. In addition to the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, Russia and Syria have labeled the entire opposition as terrorists.

Jabhat al-Nusra, whose forces are intermingled with moderate rebel groups in the northwest near the Turkish border, is particularly problematic. Russia was said to have rejected a U.S. proposal to leave Jabhat al-Nusra off-limits to bombing as part of a cease-fire, at least temporarily, until the groups can be sorted out.” (“U.S., Russia hold Syria cease-fire talks as deadline passes without action“, Washington Post)

Repeat: “Russia was said to have rejected a U.S. proposal to leave Jabhat al-Nusra (al Qaida) off-limits to bombing as part of a cease-fire, at least temporarily, until the groups can be sorted out.” In other words, the Obama administration wanted to protect an affiliate of the group that killed 3,000 Americans in the terror attacks on 9-11 and that is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Syrian civilians whose only fault was that they happen to occupy country that these Wahhabi mercenaries wanted to transform into an Islamic Caliphate. Naturally, Moscow refused to go along with this charade.

Even so, Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced on Sunday that he and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov,  “had reached a ‘provisional agreement in principle’ for a temporary truce in the Syrian civil war and that it could start within days”  although no one really knows how the “cease-fire would be enforced and how breaches would be resolved.”

Consider how hypocritical it is for Obama to reject Russia’s draft resolution at the UN and, just hours later,  try to put Al Qaida under the protective umbrella of a US-Russia brokered ceasefire. What does that say about America’s so called “war on terror”?

Meanwhile in Turkey, Erdogan’s threats to invade Syria have intensified following a car bombing in Ankara last week that killed 28 and wounded 61 others. The Turkish government blamed a young activist, Salih Neccar, who had links to the Turkish militia (YPG) in Syria of being the perpetrator. But less than 24 hours after the blast, the government’s version of events began to fall apart. In a story that has been scarcely reported in the western media, the  Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed full responsibility for the bombing according to a statement on its website. (The Freedom Hawks are linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK.) Then, on Monday, the Erdogan regime was slammed with more damning news: DNA samples demonstrated conclusively that Neccar was not perpetrator, but rather Abdulbaki Sömer, a member of the group that had claimed responsibility from the beginning. (TAK)  As of this writing, the government still hasn’t admitted that it lied to the public to build their case for war.  Erdogan and his extremist colleagues continue to use thoroughly discredited information to threaten to invade Syria. As he said on Saturday at a UNESCO meeting in Gaziantep:

“Turkey has every right to conduct operations in Syria and the places where terror organizations are nested with regards to the struggle against the threats that Turkey faces…No one can restrict Turkey’s right to self-defense in the face of terror acts that have targeted Turkey.”

This explains why Turkey has been shelling Syrian territory for the last week. It also explains why Erdogan has given Sunni jihadists a free pass to traverse Turkey and reenter the war zone in areas that improve their chances of success against the Syrian Army. Check this out from the New York Times:

“Syrian rebels have brought at least 2,000 reinforcements through Turkey in the past week to bolster the fight against Kurdish-led militias north of Aleppo, rebel sources said on Thursday.

Turkish forces facilitated the transfer from one front to another over several nights, covertly escorting rebels as they exited Syria’s Idlib governorate, traveled four hours across Turkey, and re-entered Syria to support the embattled rebel stronghold of Azaz, the sources said.

“We have been allowed to move everything from light weapons to heavy equipment, mortars and missiles and our tanks,” Abu Issa, a commander in the Levant Front, the rebel group that runs the border crossing of Bab al-Salama, told Reuters, giving his alias and talking on condition of anonymity.”  (“Syrian Rebels Say Reinforcements Get Free Passage via Turkey“, New York Times)

The Obama administration  knows that Erdogan is fueling the conflict, but has chosen to look the other way. And while Obama has (weakly) admonished Turkey for shelling Syrian territory, he has, at the same time, acknowledged Turkey’s “right to defend itself”, which is an expression the US reserves for Israel when it conducting one of its murderous rampages in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. Now, Obama has bestowed that same honor on Erdogan. This alone speaks volumes about the duplicity of Washington’s approach.

So what is Washington’s gameplan in Syria? Is the administration serious about defeating ISIS and ending the hostilities or does Obama have something else up his sleeve?

First of all,  Washington is not the least bit concerned about ISIS. The group is merely a straw-man that allows the US to conduct military operations in a region that is vital to its national interests. If the ISIS boogieman disappeared tomorrow, the White House would conjure up some other phantom–like the drug war or something equally ridiculous–so it could continue its depredations uninterrupted.  What matters to Washington is breaking up the strong, secular Arab governments that pose a long-term threat to US-Israeli ambitions. That’s what really matters. The other obvious goal is to control critical resources and pipeline corridors to the EU and make sure those resources continue to be denominated in US dollars.

We continue to believe that the US-Kurdish (YPG) alliance does not really advance US strategic interests in Syria. The US is not interested in Kurdish statehood nor do they care if jihadist militias control the northern quadrant of Syria’s border-region. The real purpose of the US-YPG alliance is to enrage Turkey and provoke them into a cross-border conflict with the Russian-led coalition. If Turkey deploys ground troops to Syria, then Moscow could face the quagmire it has tried so hard to avoid. Turkish forces would serve as a replacement army for the US-backed jihadists and other proxies that have prosecuted the war for the last five years but now appear to be in full retreat.

More importantly, a Turkish invasion would exacerbate divisions inside Turkey seriously eroding Erdogan’s grip on power while creating vulnerabilities the US could exploit by working with its agents in the Turkish military and Intel agency (MIT). The ultimate objective would be to foment sufficient social unrest to incite a color-coded revolution that would dispose of the troublemaking Erdogan in a Washington-orchestrated coup, much like the one the CIA executed in Kiev.

It is not hard to imagine Obama secretly giving Erdogan the greenlight, and then pulling the rug out from under him as soon as his troops crossed over into Syria.  A similar scam was carried out in 1990 when U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, gave Saddam Hussein the nod to invade Kuwait. The Iraqi Army had barely reached its destination before the US launched a massive military campaign (Operation Desert Storm) that forced Saddam to speedily withdraw along the infamous Highway of Death where upwards of 10,000 Iraqi regulars were annihilated like sitting ducks in a vicious and homicidal display of American firepower.   That was the first phase of Washington’s plan to overthrow Saddam and replace him with a compliant Arab stooge.

Is the same regime change trap now being set for Erdogan?

It sure looks like it.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/24/regime-change-in-ankara-more-likely-than-you-think/

Remember when they told us they’d be smart and sophisticated, not like that dumb cowboy Bush? Yeah, not so much.

DER SPIEGEL ON OBAMA — AND HILLARY’S, AND JOHN KERRY’S — SYRIAN DEBACLE:

The war has long since ceased being solely about Syria. The country has become Ground Zero of global geopolitics, an unholy mixture of Russia’s desired return to superpower status, an increasingly authoritarian Turkey, tentative US foreign policy, the Kurdish conflict, the arch-rivalry. ....

The War of Western Failures: Hopes for Syria Fall with Aleppo

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-siege-of-aleppo-is-an-emblem-of-western-failure-in-syria-a-1077140.html

Although I would like the goat-fucker of Ankara toppled in a military coup, I am afraid that it is not going to happen anytime soon. His Islamist party is supported by some 40% to 45% of the people, and his ultra-nationalist allies are having 10% to 15% support. If you overthrow a popular leader, then he will become even more strengthened.

Maybe they´ll figure that getting rid of him is preferable to world war three. Obviously the military isn´t very excited about invading Syria and being wiped out by the Russians. And then there´s the NATO nutcases. What would they do in such an eventuality?

A lot will depend upon high ranking officials such as Gen.Salih Zeki Çolak and Gen. Abidin Ünal. Until very recently, the Turkish Armed Forces used to be a staunchly secular institution, which safeguarded the country from militant Islamism. However, during the past few years, Erdoğan and Davutoğlu have managed to weaken this institution, by promoting pro-Islamist generals.

The Russians have some very effective munitions. I saw a video of something they used to wipe out terrorists in some town. It´s not cluster bombs, something much more advanced. If the Turks invade they better have the troops spread out well.

Also they can fit a thermobaric warhead to an anti tank missile. That´d be very effective against infantry and trucks. They seem to have a very impressive arsenal. After they started operations in Syria, garbage media, politicians and experts in the west are sounding much more subdued about Russian military capabilities than before.

During the Chechen war, the Russians are rumored to have used the ODAB-500 PM, which is a type of fuel-air explosive vacuum bomb. The rebels are accusing Russia of using this bomb in Syria.

https://news.vice.com/article/a-new-kind-of-bomb-is-being-used-in-syria-and-its-a-humanitarian-nightmare

It is a horrible weapon. It can rupture the lungs, and in some cases, the intestine will be thrown out of the body.

he is only dreaming about stealing more money from turkish people for sure.. i dont think he cares about ottomans or any turk on earth.. he just care about money..

Norwegian PM Erna Solberg doesn’t want to have to skirt her country’s responsibilities under the Geneva Convention and she doesn’t want to trample over human rights either, but she will if she has to.

"It is a force majeure proposals which we will have in the event that it all breaks down,” Solberg said, in an interview with Berlingske, describing new measures she believes Norway may have to take if Sweden buckles under the weight of the refugee influx which saw some 163,000 asylum seekers inundate the country last year.

Solberg is effectively prepared to turn everyone away and go into lockdown mode should everything fall apart completely, causing Europe to descend into some kind of lawless, Hobbesian, free-for-all.

If that sounds far-fetched or hyperbolic consider that on Thursday, EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos warned that the bloc has just 10 days to implement a plan that will bring about “tangible and clear results on the ground” or else “the whole system will completely break down.”....more

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-25/we-are-heading-anarchy-official-says-eu-will-completely-break-down-10-days

https://scontent-ams3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpl1/v/t1.0-9/12742458_1023244874389188_4895341875014683906_n.jpg?oh=38f196f312ddf62eb2966944f82ce6a3&oe=57504F15

There is truth in article about that civil war in souteaster of Turkey except killing own citizens.  Turkish army and police fight with a terrorist organisation who killed more than 40.000 kurdish and turkish people during 30 years.
3 years ago peace came.  Peace between that terrorist group had some conditions like leave weapons and effort finding solutions politicaly. Terrorist group accepted drop their weapons and take armed militans out of border. But they didn't do that. In contrary, they armed their units in cities like Cizre, Sur, Silopi. When their political party succeed on 07 june 2015 election,  Pkk leader declared end of peace and one month later that terrorist organisation killed 2 police officers while they were sleeping in their home. Days later they killed several soldiers in front of their family. Why?  Because they didn't need that, peace, anymore and they had selfconfidence after their political success. Today they have 82 members in Turkish Parliament.
In 17 february 2016 that terrorist organisation (PKK)   made live-bombing attack in Ankara city and killed 29 innocent civilians. Pkk doesn't represent  kurds, because they kill kurdish people too.
If Turkish army would want to  kill own citizens, it has an easy way to do that like bombing by warplanes and tanks. So they wouldn't had any lost so many.
Finally,  if you really want to reach truth about that war, you should to try seeing who has benefit of that dirty and treacherous war.  Some  of secret power doesn't want Turkey to be stronger and active on foreign policy, especially in Syria.

Grenades thrown, gunfight as 2 terrorists attack police station in Istanbul

Published time: 3 Mar, 2016 08:32

Two female terrorists have attacked a police station in Istanbul, throwing two grenades at the building, local NTV broadcaster reported. A gun battle followed, with the attackers now trapped inside the building.
The building in the Bayrampasa district is currently surrounded by Turkish police, with security forces preparing to storm the police station.

There are no details available on possible victims of the attack.

https://www.rt.com/news/334375-turkey-attack-bombing-terrorists/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Perfectly agreed, if usa wants to destroy its toy in Middle East,  you can get rid of it.. this is the only way of destroying Erdogan. .

Turkey is the strongest country around its geograph.
It is located on a very strategic region therefore it has many enemies inside and out. But it has power to defeat them.
One of inside enemy is Pkk known and accepted as, terrorist organisation for many international authority.
That terrorist organisation is murderer of arround 50.000 innocent people.
That terrorist organisation attacks to cities by  HMEs,  by suicide bombings and kills civilians.
Today that terrorist organisation occupied some of regions in some of small towns like Silopi, Cizre, Sur.
That organisation took civilians beside them as human shields. Therefore Turkish Army and Police Forces can't attack them directly for avoiding civilian lost.
This is not a civil war. Actually that is not a war. Some of damn terrorists captured some regions in peace agreement.
Unfortunately i see here terrorists friends, supporters, fans. You will know terror when it knocks, your own door, then you'll understand that terror has no friend

A bomb-laden vehicle exploded near a police barracks in the southeastern Turkish city of Nusaybin in the Mardin Province, killing two policemen and injuring another 14, Haberturk news portal reported Friday.

Two women have allegedly thrown two hand grenades into a police station in Istanbul, Turkey’s NTV television station reported Thursday.

ANKARA (Sputnik) – After the explosion, members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is prohibited in Turkey, opened grenade fire at the building. The police returned fire, according to the portal.

The Istanbul-based daily newspaper Zaman, which has been sharply critical of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been ordered into administration by an Istanbul court.
New managers to run the newspaper will be appointed by the court, which acted on the request of Istanbul prosecutors, the state-run Anatolia news agency said Friday. The new management will be expected to transform the media's editorial policy, AFP reported, citing analysts.

"Zaman would be taken over in a government-backed operation. Four batches of anti-terror squads and riot police would be sent over to Zaman headquarters in Istanbul. So tomorrow's newspaper will probably be the last time it is written how it's supposed to be written – by our editorial team," the paper's foreign affairs correspondent told RT by phone. Erdogan "has no tolerance for any dissent or opposition, whether it's in politics or in the media," he added.

There was no immediate official explanation for the court's decision, AFP said.....

https://www.rt.com/news/334547-turkey-newspaper-zaman-administration/#.Vtnzu04kb0A.facebook

I live in very lucky country so all the world worries about it.
Turkish judgement system, terrorist attacks, newspapers belong to dirty organisation.
We're so lucky that we have so much friends.
By the way, let me inform you that those terrorists who attacked to police station by, hand grenades were killed by police operation. If you interest.
That shows turkish forces and judgement system punish enemies of state.

2 policemen killed, dozens injured after bomb blast in south eastern Turkey

Published time: 4 Mar, 2016 09:18

Two police officers have been killed and 35 people injured after a car bomb exploded in the south eastern Turkish province of Mardin. The attack has been blamed on the Kurdistan Workers Party, but no one has claimed responsibility so far.
The blast struck the town of Nusaybin, near the Syrian border, but no group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, Reuters reports. A small building next to the apartment block was partially flattened by the bomb, while a large crater appeared in the road. Windows in near-by buildings have all been blown out, due to the blast.

Turkish Army itself is the biggest criminal and terrorist organization in the world. PKK is the last hope of the Kurdish people, who are facing genocide and extermination at the hands of the criminal Turkish Army and Erdogan. It is true that more than 40,000 Kurds were killed during the last three decades. And all of them were killed by the criminal Turkish army.

You are the biggest liar!  And the biggest terror supporter personaly.
In Turkey there's no Kurdish problem. They can speak their native language, they can study their language. They have members in parliament in every party.

May 24, 1993, the PKK kills 33 unarmed Turkish soldiers in an ambush on the highway between Elazığ and Bingöl

July 5, 1993, 100 militants attack the village of Başbağlar, near Erzincan, killing 33 civilians.
March 13, 1999, a petrol bomb was detonated at a crowded shopping center in Istanbul, killing 13 people. The next day two people, including a soldier are injured in Bahçelievler by a bomb placed under a truck. Turkish police suspect the PKK was behind the attacks.
July 2, 2005, six people are killed and 15 injured by a train bomb planted by Kurdish guerrillas, on a train travelling between Elâzığ and Tatvan in Bingöl province.
July 6, 2005, a bombing at a holiday resort in Kuşadası kills at least five people including a British and an Irish citizen
February 13, 2006, six people are injured in a bombing of an Istanbul supermarket. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) claim responsibility for the blast and vow more attacks
June 25, 2006, a bombing hits a tourist resort near Antalya, killing four and injuring 28 people. The TAK claim responsibility for the attack.
August 27, 2006, ten British and six Turkish citizens are wounded in a minibus bombing in Marmaris. Five people are injured by two other bombs
August 28, 2006, Three people are killed and 87 injured in a blast in Antalya. The TAK claim responsibility
September 12, 2006, a bombing in Diyarbakir kills ten civilians. The Turkish Revenge Brigade (TİT) claimed responsibility for the attack on their website, threatening to kill ten Kurds for every Turk killed in the conflict
May 22, 2007: A suicide bombing hits Ankara, killing eight and wounding over 100. This attack was attributed to the PKK and the Turkish army decided to launch a military action against them
June 4, 2007: A PKK grenade attack kills seven soldiers and wounds six at an army base in Tunceli
September 27, 2007, two Turkish gendarme are killed in Bitlis Province by a bomb planted by Kurdish separatists
January 3, 2008, a bomb attack against a military vehicle outside a school in Diyarbakır kills five and injures 110 people
May 9, 2008, three people are killed and five wounded in Batman province when a landmine destroys their minibus
August 7, 2008: The PKK claimed responsibility for the explosion that halted the operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
October 4, 2008: Fifteen Turkish soldiers were killed, with another 20 also wounded, after a PKK attack from northern Iraq with the firing of heavy weapons at a military outpost in the Semdinli region bordering Iraq and Iran. At least 23 members of the PKK were also killed.
The British foreign office said: "The United Kingdom utterly condemns Friday's terrorist attack in Hakkâri, Turkey. There can be no excuse for the use of violence to achieve one's aims. The UK stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Turkey in its fight against terrorism and strongly supports ongoing efforts between the Turkish and Iraqi authorities to prevent the PKK from using northern Iraq as a base from which to mount attacks against Turkey
The European Union also condemned the on the gendarmerie station in a statement released by the Union's French presidency, saying: "Europe expresses its complete solidarity with the Turkish authorities and offers its condolences to the families and friends of the victims
April 29, 2009, a PKK detonated bomb kills nine soldiers after ripping through their vehicle in Diyarbakir province.[
May 4, 2009, Village Guards dressed as PKK fighters attack a wedding party with rifles and grenades, killing at least 44 people in a family feud.
May 28, 2009: 6 Turkish soldiers were killed and 7 others were reportedly injured when their vehicle struck a landmine, in the Hakkâri Province of south-eastern Turkey
December 7, 2009: Seven Turkish soldiers were killed and three wounded in an ambush in Resadiye, Northern Turkey. The gunmen are suspected Kurdish militants, but their identities have not yet been confirmed.
April 19, 2010: 2 Turkish police officers were killed after suspected PKK militants opened fire upon their police patrol car with automatic weapons in the northern Turkish province of Samsun
April 26, 2010: 1 Turkish soldier was killed and 2 others were reportedly wounded after a landmine detonated, as their military vehicle was crossing a bridge near to the town of Dereli within the Giresun province

More and more. Pkk kills kurds too. Attacks schools, kills teachers, attacks mosques.
Pkk is the biggest trouble of kurdish people in Turkey.

(CNN)A car bomb explosion ripped through a busy square in the Turkish capital Sunday evening, killing at least 34 people and wounding 125 others, officials said.

The death toll could include one or two attackers, Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said.

Scores of police cars, firefighters and medical personnel rushed to the scene. Security forces evacuated the area, the official Turkish news agency Anadolu reported.

https://scontent-ams3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/1234590_1738605139718562_2796647639541208494_n.jpg?oh=f6a03344e064149cb4884513ba4e09ab&oe=57507617

The Kurds meet all the requirements for being a separate people, their own language, identity, and so forth.

Washington won his war of independence against Britain; but he didn't do it alone. He had the French as allies. Who will be the allies of the Kurds? They can be found if you look with an open mind.

You don´t stage major terrorist attacks in the capital REPEATEDLY unless you have support from the military/intelligence service. It´s just not possible. This country is coming apart. There is very little meaningful security.

It is interesting that on the 11th March, the US Embassy issued a warning to US citizens about the threat of a possible terrorist attack that may affect the buildings of the Turkish government. The current attack occurred not far from the office of the Prime Minister of Turkey.

Kurds have their own language and can use in Turkey. It is all free. They have many kurdish tv channels and one is an official channel served them by government.
PKK claims new state in that land and claims fighting in name of kurds but most of kurds aren't in same opinion

Don't talk in name of kurds. If PKK would find an ally to fight wit Turkey, kurds will fight them beside of Turkey. Because bastard, we are brothers for 1000's years.

Israel Urges Citizens to Leave Turkey Immediately
Officials Say 'Active' ISIS Plot Against Istanbul School

by Jason Ditz, March 28, 2016

Following last week’s warnings about travel to Turkey, the Israeli government has issued a “level 3” warning, urging all citizens to leave Turkey as soon as possible, claiming an imminent, active threat of ISIS and other similar groups carrying out attacks.

While the warning itself didn’t offer specifics, intelligence officials later reported an “active” plot by ISIS to attack a major Jewish school in Istanbul, which is also a synagogue. They say the plot is still ongoing, and an attack could happen at any moment.

Early last week, an ISIS attack in Istanbul targeted a number of tourists, including several Israelis. Indications were that the Israeli tourists were being followed and were likely the primary target of the attack.

That sparked the initial warning, but more intelligence has emerged since then, with Turkish police also warning over the weekend that they believe ISIS is planning attacks against both Christians and Jews inside Turkey over the next few days.

Between ISIS, the ongoing Turkish war against the Kurds, and intermittent attacks by a Marxist-Leninist group, Turkey has no shortage of threats, and in recent weeks seems to be facing near constant threats of new bombings.

http://news.antiwar.com/2016/03/28/israel-urges-citizens-to-leave-turkey-immediately/

Pentagon Orders Hundreds Of Military Families To Evacuate Turkey

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/29/2016 11:24 -0400

 
Has the US finally had enough of its "ally" Erdogan? 

Moments ago the DOD announced that the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Secretary of State, has authorized the ordered departure of all DoD dependents not assigned to Chief of Mission authority from Adana (to include Incirlik Air Base), Ismir, and Mugla, Turkey. This decision allows for the deliberate, safe return of family members from these areas due to continued security concerns in the region.

It adds that while "this step does not signify a permanent decision to end accompanied tours at these facilities", the evacuation "is intended to mitigate the risk to DoD elements and personnel, including family members, while ensuring the combat effectiveness of U.S. forces and our mission support to operations in Turkey. The United States and Turkey are united in our common fight against ISIL, and Incirlik continues to play a key role in counter-ISIL operations."

“The decision to move our families and civilians was made in consultation with the Government of Turkey, our State Department, and our Secretary of Defense,” said Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, Commander, U.S. European Command. “We understand this is disruptive to our military families, but we must keep them safe and ensure the combat effectiveness of our forces to support our strong Ally Turkey in the fight against terrorism.”
Stars and Stripes adds more:

The Pentagon is ordering the evacuation of nearly 700 military family members from Incirlik Air Base and two smaller military installations in Turkey because of concerns over the deteriorating security environment there.
 
Families are expected to begin leaving Turkey on Wednesday, stopping first at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, before continuing on to the States or other duty locations, U.S. European Command told Stars and Stripes.
 
“We understand this is disruptive to our military families, but we must keep them safe and ensure the combat effectiveness of our forces to support our strong ally Turkey in the fight against terrorism,” EUCOM chief Gen. Philip Breedlove said Tuesday in a statement.
 
The mandatory departure order, announced by the State Department, affects nearly all Defense Department dependents assigned to Incirlik, as well as those at smaller bases in Izmir and Mugla.
 
About 670 dependents are expected to be evacuated, along with 287 pets. About 770 dependents, most from Incirlik, are currently in Turkey, EUCOM spokeswoman Julie Weckerlein said. Those allowed to stay are the family members of mission-essential personnel.
This is all taking place one day after the Turkey Foreign Ministry, outraged by a satirical clip making fun of the Turkish President and his recent policies that was broadcast on German television, summoned the German Ambassador for official explanations. Following the broadcast of the satirical piece titled “Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan” on NDR show titled “Extra 3” on March 17, German Ambassador Martin Erdmann was summoned up several days later to officially explain “in length” the reasons for the broadcaster’s behavior, Der Speigel has learned.

The one minute and 52 second long satire package showing footage from recent history in Turkey criticized Erdogan's increased crackdown on the freedom of the press and hostile policies in the region, including Turkey’s alleged support for Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters in neighboring Syria.

The video also focused on the lavish living of the Turkish president and his multibillion euro deals with the Europeans to keep migrants at bay. The broadcast on German television comes at a time when Germany, as part of EU is actively seeking closer ties with Turkey to help tackle the migrant crisis in Europe.

Erdogan’s crackdown on journalists and restrictions on freedom of speech have been repeatedly criticized by the international community, along with Ankara’s controversial anti-terrorists campaign against Kurdish militants which inflicted much suffering on Turkey’s minority population.

The day the satirical piece was aired, RT launched a petition calling for a UNHRC-led investigation into claims of alleged mass killing of Kurdish civilians committed by the Turkish military during Ankara’s crackdown on Kurds in the country's southeast.

The video is below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2e2yHjc_mc

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-29/state-department-and-dod-order-hundreds-military-families-evacuate-turkey

They have defacto independence in Iraq. And they are close to achieving the same (Rojava) in Syria. The situation is not that good in Turkish Kurdistan. Turkey is trying to suppress the Kurdish language and customs. In Iran also, the situation is not that good. But it is much better when compared to the situation in Turkey.

Language an customs!? Where do you get information sucker? I offer you to search it correctly and leave being a liar
Tv channel on link is a state television http://www.trt.net.tr/trtkurdi/
And next link will inform you that Turkey doesn't supress kurdish language https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/speaking-kurdish-turkey

Go through these links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_of_Kurdish_people_in_Turkey

http://www.kurdishacademy.org/?q=node/129

I live in that country and you hell know better than me!? Turkey kills terrorists and arrests who support terrorist organisation..Nobody can seperate our homeland by founding new state. That land was gotten by blood and it will given back by blood.

That is exactly why the bloodshed is going on there.

And let me tell you one thing. No one can impose their rule over a particular ethnic group or culture by force in the long-term. In the short-term it might work. But as time progresses, the occupying force will find it harder and harder to maintain the status quo. If you have any doubt, then just ask the Indonesians about East Timor.

'Sexists' and 'perverts': insults rock Turkish politics

AFP
April 8, 2016

Istanbul (AFP) - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed an allegedly sexist remark by Turkey's opposition leader as an "affront" to all Turkish women on Friday, further fueling a colourful war of words which erupted earlier in the week.

The verbal spat started when the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, accused Family Minister Sema Ramazanoglu of "laying down in front of someone", to criticise her handling of recent cases of sexual abuse in schools.

The remark prompted outrage with the ruling party accusing Kilicdarogul of sexism and "immorality".

"What will we do with these political perverts?" Erdogan said on Wednesday, in comments carried by local media.

He said every word used by his opposition rival was "unnecessary, like Kilicdaroglu himself."

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu meanwhile accused the opposition chief of being "inhumane" and declared he had unfollowed him from Twitter as a result of his remarks.

As the scandal mushroomed, the family minister Ramazanoglu decided Thursday that enough was enough and pressed charges against Kilicdarogul for "mental anguish and violating her personal rights", reported the pro-government Daily Sabah, adding she sought 50,000 Turkish Lira (15,000 euros, $17,000) in damages.

"I believe these unfortunate statements have bothered all female members of the CHP and also Kilicdaroglu’s wife," she said in a statement, reported by Hurriyet daily news.

Kilicdaroglu fired back at the criticism, saying it was in fact Erdogan who was guilty of "perversion", after the president said recently that the way some young people dressed or showed public affection was not in line with his values.

"Is it your job to sit at (the presidential palace) and look at the girls and women?" he said.

Kilicdaroglu has denied his original remark was sexist.

With the debate showing no sign of dying down, Erdogan brought it up again Friday after finishing prayers at a mosque, saying the remark was "an affront to all the women of Turkey".

Erdogan himself has raised eyebrows over his comments about women, urging Turkish women to have at least three children and railing against efforts to promote birth control as "treason".

Critics have accused his government of trying to impose strict Islamic values on Turkey and curtailing women's civil liberties.

In March he marked International Women's Day with the comment: "I know there will be some who will be annoyed, but for me a woman is above all a mother."

Thousands of women protested his remark in Istanbul with chants of "We want equality".

The president is also exceedingly touchy at any hint of an slur against him, with dozens of cases ongoing against journalists and cartoonists accused of insulting him.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/sexists-perverts-insults-rock-turkish-politics-174442248.html?nhp=1

Kurdish people in Turkey are all patriots and they don't support terror... They have their own political party in parliament and they have members in other parties. So, kurds have representers in parliament who defend their rights. But PKK, terrorist organisation claims founding a new state in spite of kurds. They are killing civilians, soldiers and polices by assasinations, bombings and direct attacking.

They´ve killed lots of soldiers and police over the years but as I understand it they don´t usually target civilians. PKK that is.

More bombings in Turkey...

DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY (AFP) - Two Turkish soldiers were killed and more than 50 people wounded when a car bomb exploded at a military post in Turkey's restive Kurdish-dominated south-east, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Tuesday (April 12).

Turkish authorities blamed the attack on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has killed hundreds of members of the security forces in a resurgent campaign of violence in the last few months.

Davutoglu denounced the "vile attack" accusing what he termed the "terrorist organisation" of resorting to such attacks whenever it was backed into corner, in reference to the PKK.

The attack late on Monday targeted a military outpost in the Hani district of Diyarbakir province and left 52 people injured, including civilians.

The PKK never targets civilians, unlike the Turkish armed forces. And that is exactly why Erdoğan created a ghost organization called Teyrêbazên Azadiya Kurdistan, to blame the Kurds for suicide bombings. For me the main difference is that the PKK is fighting against the ISIS and Al Nusra, while the Turkish armed forces are supporting these terrorist factions.

Fighting moving from rural areas to cities results in more destruction. It should be avoided.

What I find totally amazing is how this is allowed to fester for decades. The death and destruction is obviously horrendous. What exactly is the purpose of the United Nations? Is it really good for anything as regards peace in the world?

The United Nations will remain as just another toothless body, unless the superpowers are revoked of their veto power. Superpowers are invading third world nations such as Afghanistan, Falklands, Yemen, Palestine, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, and the UN can't do anything as the invaders are using their veto power to stall any intervention from the UN.

Fighting must be avoided everywhere, at any cost. I hope that the United Nations will intervene in this conflict, and send peacekeepers to south-east Turkey.

Where UN could be successful in regions where war exist?
UN works only for American profits by putting benzine on fire. UN has no peacekeeper, has peacebroker

They´re always embroiled in child molestation scandals where they´re supposed to be keeping the peace. Sounds like a very good scheme to actually disrupt the peace if you ask me.

Search Results
Child sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers - Wikipedia, the ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sexual_abuse_by_UN_peacekeepers
Sexual abuse of female minors by personnel in United Nations peacekeeping forces has seriously undermined the credibility of "peacekeeping" missions ...
UN finds more cases of child abuse by European troops in ...
www.theguardian.com › World › Central African Republic
Jan 29, 2016 - Up to six more cases of alleged sexual abuse, including girl of 7 and boy of 9, by EU and French soldiers in Central African Republic, says ...
UN accused of 'gross failure' over alleged sexual abuse by ...
www.theguardian.com › World › United Nations
Dec 17, 2015 - Independent panel says UN's lack of response allowed assaults on children by peacekeepers in Central African Republic to continue.

That means they try bringing peace to regions by f***ing.
No war yes love.

In most of the cases, the "United Nations Peacekeeping Force" is composed of soldiers from third world nations such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, where there is a history of human rights abuses by the soldiers against the civilian population. Pakistani soldiers have committed numerous human rights violations against the Balochis, while their Bangladeshi cousins have participated in the ethnic cleansing of Buddhists in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region. This could be avoided if developed countries such as Japan and Luxembourg are ready to provide soldiers to the Peacekeeping Force.

Could also be avoided by shit-canning the entire United Nations.  I'm not opposed to having an international organization to deal with a limited number of critical international situations, but the United Nations was, IMHO, born corrupt and screwed up and has only gotten worse since that time.  Technology is such that the entire world could vote individually for positions within an organization with a sub-set of it's current charter.  Just as is the case here in the U.S., a lot of problems in the U.N. could be addressed if the charter outlined a radical form of transparency.  This is the polar opposite of what we have going on now, and the covert nature of it's leadership and operations are responsible in my opinion for a great deal of the deficiency and malfeasance expressed by the organization.

Your Islamophobia makes you blind!
You don't talk about Bosnia. While Serbians kill innocent civilians in Bosnia UN peacekeepers watched.
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/16/world/un-details-its-failure-to-stop-95-bosnia-massacre.html
Or in Somalia?
http://www.slideshare.net/alexbeja/the-failure-of-the-united-nations

Your reply has nothing to do with my original post. I was talking about soldiers from the third world nations being used as peacekeepers, and you are trying to divert the topic by claiming that Serbs were killing Muslims. And my post had nothing to do with Islamophobia. Where is Islamophpbia when Muslim Pakistani soldiers were killing Muslim Balochis?

The country that attempted to destroy my entire race?

I hope those POS get a nice dose of karama.