Our worst nightmare is realized. Turkey\u2019s so called \u201csynchronised war on terror\u201d, against ISIS and the Kurdish insurgency may have by-passed the militant Islamists, but Turkish air strikes on PKK hide-outs in northern Iraq and the campaign in the south-east have pushed the country into a spiral of violence.<\/p>\n
The Kurdistan Worker\u2019s Party (PKK) which has been building quasi-state structures in the south east lost no time in resuming its violent attacks. Its provocative declaration of autonomy and \u201cself-defence forces\u201d, put the final nail in the coffin of a two year-long period of relative peacefulness.<\/p>\n
Turkey is facing a long period of dangerous instability and unless both sides stop forcing an all-out war on us, I fear that the worst is yet to come.<\/p>\n
After nearly three decades of inconclusive fighting, the resurgence of violence engulfing the country is calamitous enough. Reported excesses of the security forces, humiliation and trauma inflicted on civilians as well as the uncompromising language used by the authorities further deepen ethnic fault lines.<\/p>\n
Despite continuing efforts by the representatives of the Peoples\u2019 Democratic Party (HDP) to return to a ceasefire, indiscriminate attacks and threats by the PKK inflame Turkish public opinion.<\/p>\n
It is the moral disengagement displayed by both the political elite and a considerable proportion of the population in the face of legitimate grievances felt by the victims of the conflict, that disturbs me more than anything else.\u00a0 Destroying future prospect of peace is more devastating than the fight itself.<\/p>\n
In recent days, restrictions on the media have tightened. Curfews have been declared in several towns and districts. Mobile communications and electricity have been cut in areas of tension in the southeast.<\/p>\n
In this intimidating fog of war, President Erdogan does what he knows best – fear-mongering. He fans and exploits people\u2019s fear of instability and terrorism.<\/p>\n
It is now clear that a coalition government cannot be formed and a snap election will be the most likely option.<\/p>\n
It is precisely the outcome Mr Erdogan has been masterfully engineering since the 7th<\/sup> June election when his Justice and Development party (AKP) failed to secure a parliamentary majority and the electorate did not want an all-powerful president. Yet none of this stopped Mr Erdogan taking bold steps to consolidate his hold on power.<\/p>\n As he put it on August 14, Turkey\u2019s government has been already changed into a de facto presidential system whether \u201cwe accept it or not\u201d.<\/p>\n All Mr Erdogan needs now is a rubber stamp and the country once again set on an ethno-sectarian fire is getting more than pliable to do it for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our worst nightmare is realized. Turkey\u2019s so called \u201csynchronised war on terror\u201d, against ISIS and the Kurdish insurgency may have by-passed the militant Islamists, but Turkish air strikes on PKK hide-outs in northern Iraq and the campaign in the south-east have pushed the country into a spiral of violence. The Kurdistan Worker\u2019s Party (PKK) which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27781,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27779\/revisions\/27781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}