The government chooses to remain silent about recent attacks by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for fear that the settlement process might be destroyed and to be able to get support in the upcoming presidential election from voters of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), analysts have said.
“Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] has to ignore the attacks by the PKK, because otherwise the PKK would reengage in bloody attacks in the [Southeast] region,” Yusuf Halaçoğlu, deputy chairman of the parliamentary group of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), told Today's Zaman.
Despite several attacks by the PKK against Turkish Army units in recent weeks, Erdoğan did make any mention of the attacks in his speeches, nor did he say the PKK would be punished for violating the cease-fire that is part of the settlement process.
The ongoing settlement process the government launched, with Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the PKK, is one of the issues that earns the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) votes in elections.
Despite an ongoing settlement process, launched at the end of 2012, the PKK recently staged a number of attacks, possibly to force the government to take some steps as part of the process, against targets of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in the country's Southeast that is densely populated by Kurds.
In the most recent incident, the PKK fired on Tuesday at an army helicopter in Diyabakır province. No injuries were reported, but four bullets hit the helicopter.
Last weekend, the PKK kidnapped two specialist sergeants in eastern Turkey and wounded nine members of the TSK in a southeastern province. The kidnapping took place when a group of terrorist PKK supporters blocked a road heading to the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Saturday in protest of the construction of a gendarmerie outpost.
"It is to be able get the votes of the HDP supporters, which Erdoğan badly needs [to get elected], in [presidential] elections, Erdoğan is overlooking [terrorist] actions of the PKK," Ferit Mevlüt Aslanoğlu a deputy from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), has told Today's Zaman.
According to Halaçoğlu, who noted that the PKK has considerably consolidated its position in the region during the settlement process, it is not possible for Prime Minister Erdoğan to target the PKK as Erdoğan will -- should he decide to run for presidency -- be needing the votes of the supporters of the HDP, which is closely linked to the PKK. “At a time when Turkish flags cannot be raised on some public buildings [in the country's Southeast], it is just not possible for the prime minister to raise his voice against the PKK,” Halaçoğlu commented.
The MHP's Halaçoğlu feels the prime minister is obliged to the PKK because Erdoğan would, as maintained by opposition parties, be called to account before the law due to claims of corruption, should Erdoğan lose power.
In another recent incident, a group of PKK terrorists, the Turkish military said, opened fire from the Iraqi side of the border on a military unit positioned in a mountainous area in rural parts of Şemdinli, a district of the southeastern province of Hakkari. The security forces returned fire at the PKK group, who fled the area.
MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli harshly criticized the prime minister during his speech at the party's parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, for his silence about the PKK attacks. Accusing Erdoğan of behaving as if he is a “secret member of the PKK,” the MHP leader demanded to know why Erdoğan as a prime minister, who is known to retaliate against any remarks made against him, remained silent. Erdoğan is in a mindset to give whatever is demanded by the PKK, Bahçeli claimed.
PKK leader Öcalan demanded, in a letter read out during the Nevruz celebrations in Diyarbakır on March 21, that the settlement talks should turn into proper negotiations between the PKK and the government. The demands of the PKK and the HDP include autonomy in Turkey's Southeast and the right to education in mother tongue.
According to Atilla Sandıklı, president of the İstanbul-based Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies (Bilgesam), the government cannot risk failure of the settlement process, as it represents one of the very few things that earns votes for the government.
“As the settlement process is an element through which the prime minister can present himself as successful to the society, he remains silent to the presence of the PKK in the mountains and cities,” Sandıklı told Today's Zaman.
Although the head of Bilgesam noted that the risks for failure of the process are also on the rise as expectations of the PKK being able to move freely in the region are becoming impossible to meet, Sandıklı said: “I believe the prime minister will continue to act like this until the [presidential] elections.”
Erdoğan's AK Party got around 44 percent of the votes at the local elections held at the end of March. The prime minister, who is expected to run for president in the election to be held on Aug. 10, needs the votes of the HDP supporters to obtain more than 50 percent of the votes to get elected as president.
The PKK declared a cease-fire last year, but halted the withdrawal of its forces from Turkey months later. The halting of the withdrawal has drawn the "peace talks" between the Turkish state and the terrorist group to the brink of deadlock. The PKK's reckless activities throughout the region are fueling fears of a revival of clashes.
Source/Fuente: http://www.todayszaman.com/news-346659-erdogan-silent-about-pkk-attacks-...
