Turkey's southeast, once the theater of a 15-year bloody insurgency for Kurdish self-rule, is under risk of being pulled into renewed violence amid an increase in fighting between Kurdish rebels and security forces, according to observers in the mainly Kurdish region.
"Twenty-six people, both rebels and members of the security forces, have been killed in the past two months. This points to an increase," Selahattin Demirtas, the head of the Diyarbakir branch of the Turkish Human Rights Association, said.
The new incidents of fighting follow a five-year lull which began after rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- now known as KONGRA-GEL -- declared a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew from Turkey in 1999.
The rebels said then that the truce was aimed at a peaceful resolution of the conflict -- which claimed some 37,000 lives -- and to allow Turkey time and opportunity to improve rights for its Kurdish minority.
Turkish officials have categorically rejected the rebels' truce, but Ankara has since then made some concessions toward its Kurdish population, allowing private institutions to teach Kurdish and permitting limited Kurdish-language broadcasts in a bid to boost its chances of joining the EU.
However the reforms have not been enough to satisfy the rebels, according to Diyarbakir mayor Osman Baydemir, who hails from the country's main Kurdish party, the Democratic People's Party.
"In the past five years Turkey has failed to respond to expectations. Democracy reforms have come very slowly," he said.
Demirtas, meanwhile, linked the increased fighting to the war in neighboring Iraq. Up to 5,000 Kurdish rebels from Turkey are believed to be in hiding in mountainous northern Iraq since pulling back from Turkish territory in 1999.
"The Unites States wants KONGRA-GEL militants to leave Iraq. They come to Turkey and clashes erupt," Demirtas said.
The US, a key Turkish ally, considers KONGRA-GEL to be a terrorist organization and last year reached agreement with Ankara on an "action plan," including military measures, against the group.
Turkey has since complained of US reluctance to purge northern Iraq of the rebels.
"We continue to repeat our demands ... and they [the US] reiterate their determination to get rid of the terrorist organization ... But no progress has been made," Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in a television interview on Thursday.
But Baydemir said the road to peace lay not in military operations but in granting full amnesty to the rebels, paving the way for them to lay their arms and come back to Turkey.
Successive Turkish governments have offered limited amnesty -- mainly in the form of sentence reductions -- to Kurdish rebels on several occasions but only on strict conditions.
Senior leaders of the group were left out of the scope of the amnesties -- commonly known as repentance laws -- and those who wanted to benefit from it had to first provide information on rebel positions and movements.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
‘NO WORKABLE SOLUTION’: An official said Pakistan engaged in the spirit of peace, but Kabul continued its ‘unabated support to terrorists opposed to Pakistan’ Pakistan yesterday said that negotiations for a lasting truce with Afghanistan had “failed to bring about a workable solution,” warning that it would take steps to protect its people. Pakistan and Afghanistan have been holding negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey, aimed at securing peace after the South Asian neighbors’ deadliest border clashes in years. The violence, which killed more than 70 people and wounded hundreds, erupted following explosions in Kabul on Oct. 9 that the Taliban authorities blamed on Pakistan. “Regrettably, the Afghan side gave no assurances, kept deviating from the core issue and resorted to blame game, deflection and ruses,” Pakistani Minister of
UNCERTAIN TOLLS: Images on social media showed small protests that escalated, with reports of police shooting live rounds as polling stations were targeted Tanzania yesterday was on lockdown with a communications blackout, a day after elections turned into violent chaos with unconfirmed reports of many dead. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan had sought to solidify her position and silence criticism within her party in the virtually uncontested polls, with the main challengers either jailed or disqualified. In the run-up, rights groups condemned a “wave of terror” in the east African nation, which has seen a string of high-profile abductions that ramped up in the final days. A heavy security presence on Wednesday failed to deter hundreds protesting in economic hub Dar es Salaam and elsewhere, some
RSS