generalspeaking

Who Said What?

"[Members of his Islamic party were] lynched as they distributed meat [to the poor]."
"They recognized three of our young friends from their beards and loose pants. [The Islamists were] chased into a building, where they hid in a third-floor apartment."
"I can't know what Hezbollah will do, but relatives of victims might want vengeance."
Seyhmus Tanrikulu, head, Diyarbakir branch, Huda-Par party, Turkey

"They're attacking our bearded brothers, they're attacking our women in head scarves."
"They're attacking our sacred Islamic values."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

"An improving dialogue [had been initiated between nationalists and Islamists in Turkey's Kurdish region]. The latest tension [resulting from Turkey's stance on Kobani, Syria] may inevitably lead to renewed clashes between the PKK and Hezbollah."
Mehmet Kaya, head, Tigris Communal Research Center, Diyarbakir, Turkey

Turkish riot police detain protesters an use tear gas to disperse people protesting against Turkey's policy in Syria as fighting intensified between Kurds and Islamists. Burhan Ozbilici/The Associated Press

Kurdish nationalists accused Turkey's authorities in the 1990s of manipulating and encouraging local Islamist groups to wage a campaign of extra-judicial killings, resulting in street battles between Islamists and PKK separatist supporters. This month, the spectre of those violent times was on view as renewed rioting by Kurds took place in protest against Turkey's failure to help stop the Islamic State's attack on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.

The anger was not directed only at the government in Ankara. But was equally aimed at the local Islamists linked to the Turkish Hezbollah, a movement promoting Islamic law in Turkey's southern regions with majority Kurdish populations. Mr. Tanrikulu of the Huda-Par party in Diyarbakir described a pursuit of three of his party's young members. Pursued by enraged Kurds, he claims the Kurds broke down a door of an apartment where they had sought haven.

The three Islamist men were then killed, said Mr. Tanrikulu, and one at least had been thrown over the apartment balcony and when the body landed in the street below protesters continued to attack the body of 16-year-old Yasin Boru, identified by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who confirmed the event had occurred even as Mr. Tanrikulu described it. The event's accuracy affirmed by President Tayyip Erdogan.

Mr. Erdogan claimed to single out members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (P) considered a terrorist group by Turkey as the strongest, most militant Kurdish nationalist movement as responsible for the atrocity. His statements appear to have convinced Turkey's Kurdish population that the government fully backs Islamists like the terrorist-classified Hezbollah (no connection to Lebanon's Hezbollah) over Kurdish aspirations.

The battle for Kobani just over the border from Turkey has placed a delicate peace process between the government of Turkey and the PKK at risk, with the PKK leaders threatening they would resume their conflict for independence should Turkey continue to do nothing to aid the Syrian Kurds defending Kobani from the Islamic State terrorists. Turkish Hezbollah threatens to respond with "multiple" retaliation should any of their Islamist groups be attacked again by Kurds.

Mr. Tanrikulu advised that he planned to reject a request to arrange a meeting with local Kurdish parties to iron out possible difficulties in an effort to prevent any such upscale of clashes between the area's Kurds and Islamists. He sees no value in such a meeting, unwilling to appear conciliatory toward the Kurds. "I have nothing to talk about with people who are attacking us."

Under constant pressure of tribal, ethnic and ideological polarities, can these people possibly live together in one quasi-embracing national community? Or is it finally time for the Kurds to be given leave to take possession of a geography equal to what their numbers militate, to have a homeland of their very own, at long last, and most fittingly?

Labels: Conflict, Islamists, Kurds, PKK, Syria, Turkey

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, October 25, 2014