Jigs
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Turkey mourns as it seeks solution after attacks on military - Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review
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Sunday, June 20, 2010
ISTANBUL - Daily News with wires
A military ceremony was held Sunday in the eastern city of Van for 11 soldiers killed over the weekend as politicians and the public debate what steps should be taken to stop the violence.
While the opposition argues that the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has failed in its efforts to solve the bloody conflict, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed Sunday to “annihilate” the members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
“The terrorists will drown in their own blood,” Erdoğan said in a speech at the service honoring the slain soldiers, which was also attended by Cabinet members, Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ, force commanders, chief EU negotiator Egemen Bağış and ambassadors from 15 EU member countries who had come to Van to attend a festival.
“The escalation of violence will not divert Turkey a single millimeter from its goal of growth and becoming a strong and respected state,” Erdoğan added. “These treacherous attacks will not destroy our brotherhood and unity.”
There has been a sharp increase in the number of clashes with the PKK in recent months. On Friday, the Turkish military said it had killed about 120 PKK members since March, while 43 members of the Turkish security forces had also died.
The latest attack on security forces came in the early hours Saturday, when a reportedly 200-strong group of PKK members attacked a mobile military unit in the Şemdinli district of Hakkari province, close to Turkey’s borders with Iran and Iraq.
Benefiting from the fog and rain, the PKK attacked the unit from three fronts at 2 a.m., using automatic rifles and rocket launchers. While support from Turkish helicopters remained limited during the first hours of the struggle, artillery units bombarded the locations the PKK members were attacking from. Eight Turkish soldiers were killed, and 14 of them wounded during the shootout, which lasted five hours and also cost the lives of 12 members of the PKK.
Two more Turkish soldiers were killed around noon Saturday when they stepped on a mine laid by the PKK as they pursued escaping members of the group. The body of another fallen soldier was also found during the day, while an attack Saturday night brought the weekend death toll to 12 soldiers.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey as well as the United States and the European Union.
Erdoğan’s administration has widened Kurdish cultural rights and sought to end nearly three decades of conflict by allowing television broadcasts in the Kurdish language and increasing investment in the country’s Southeast. However, the government project, first called the “Kurdish initiative” and then the “democratic initiative,” practically came to a halt after a group of PKK members and residents of the Makhmour refugee camp in northern Iraq entered the country in October 2009 to a much-criticized celebration.
The recent increase in PKK violence reflects the group’s efforts to “sabotage the economic, social and democratic development process,” Erdoğan said in a statement Saturday. “We know whose subcontractor the PKK is,” the prime minister added, though he did not explain who he was blaming for the terrorist organization’s attack.
Families of the fallen soldiers experienced a bitter holiday Sunday. “Father’s Day was a day of grief for me, but I will not cry and please the villains,” said İlyas Yelken, the father of soldier Oğuz Yelken.
Opposition parties called on the AKP government to take strict precautions to control the situation, with Republican People’s Party, or CHP, leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu arguing that the deaths were the result of the government’s failure.
“Unfortunately, the political will has debilitated the combat against terror,” Kılıçdaroğlu said Saturday, adding that there is no doubt that the fight against the PKK will be won, and any stance, action, manner or statement that would harm this fight should be avoided.
Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, leader Devlet Bahçeli demanded that a state of emergency be declared in the area to cut the domestic resources of the PKK. Saying the government should announce that the “PKK initiative rubbish is [being] given up,” the MHP chief also advised a military operation be conducted to form a “safety line” beyond the Iraqi border.
Bengi Yıldız, the deputy parliamentary group leader of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, argued that there is a shared responsibility. “We are all responsible for the grief experienced: the Parliament is, the government is, the people who rule Turkey are,” said Yıldız. “Nobody can escape from this responsibility. We all have the blood of those children on our hands.”
Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Şahin said the routine explanations after the deadly attacks do not satisfy the Turkish nation anymore. He recalled the statements made by the father of a fallen soldier on why the government and military cannot deal with the PKK, saying: “I am expecting a satisfactory explanation from the Chief of General Staff on the martyrs we lost today. So is the public.”
Font Size: Larger|Smaller
Sunday, June 20, 2010
ISTANBUL - Daily News with wires
A military ceremony was held Sunday in the eastern city of Van for 11 soldiers killed over the weekend as politicians and the public debate what steps should be taken to stop the violence.
While the opposition argues that the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has failed in its efforts to solve the bloody conflict, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed Sunday to “annihilate” the members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
“The terrorists will drown in their own blood,” Erdoğan said in a speech at the service honoring the slain soldiers, which was also attended by Cabinet members, Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ, force commanders, chief EU negotiator Egemen Bağış and ambassadors from 15 EU member countries who had come to Van to attend a festival.
“The escalation of violence will not divert Turkey a single millimeter from its goal of growth and becoming a strong and respected state,” Erdoğan added. “These treacherous attacks will not destroy our brotherhood and unity.”
There has been a sharp increase in the number of clashes with the PKK in recent months. On Friday, the Turkish military said it had killed about 120 PKK members since March, while 43 members of the Turkish security forces had also died.
The latest attack on security forces came in the early hours Saturday, when a reportedly 200-strong group of PKK members attacked a mobile military unit in the Şemdinli district of Hakkari province, close to Turkey’s borders with Iran and Iraq.
Benefiting from the fog and rain, the PKK attacked the unit from three fronts at 2 a.m., using automatic rifles and rocket launchers. While support from Turkish helicopters remained limited during the first hours of the struggle, artillery units bombarded the locations the PKK members were attacking from. Eight Turkish soldiers were killed, and 14 of them wounded during the shootout, which lasted five hours and also cost the lives of 12 members of the PKK.
Two more Turkish soldiers were killed around noon Saturday when they stepped on a mine laid by the PKK as they pursued escaping members of the group. The body of another fallen soldier was also found during the day, while an attack Saturday night brought the weekend death toll to 12 soldiers.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey as well as the United States and the European Union.
Erdoğan’s administration has widened Kurdish cultural rights and sought to end nearly three decades of conflict by allowing television broadcasts in the Kurdish language and increasing investment in the country’s Southeast. However, the government project, first called the “Kurdish initiative” and then the “democratic initiative,” practically came to a halt after a group of PKK members and residents of the Makhmour refugee camp in northern Iraq entered the country in October 2009 to a much-criticized celebration.
The recent increase in PKK violence reflects the group’s efforts to “sabotage the economic, social and democratic development process,” Erdoğan said in a statement Saturday. “We know whose subcontractor the PKK is,” the prime minister added, though he did not explain who he was blaming for the terrorist organization’s attack.
Families of the fallen soldiers experienced a bitter holiday Sunday. “Father’s Day was a day of grief for me, but I will not cry and please the villains,” said İlyas Yelken, the father of soldier Oğuz Yelken.
Opposition parties called on the AKP government to take strict precautions to control the situation, with Republican People’s Party, or CHP, leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu arguing that the deaths were the result of the government’s failure.
“Unfortunately, the political will has debilitated the combat against terror,” Kılıçdaroğlu said Saturday, adding that there is no doubt that the fight against the PKK will be won, and any stance, action, manner or statement that would harm this fight should be avoided.
Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, leader Devlet Bahçeli demanded that a state of emergency be declared in the area to cut the domestic resources of the PKK. Saying the government should announce that the “PKK initiative rubbish is [being] given up,” the MHP chief also advised a military operation be conducted to form a “safety line” beyond the Iraqi border.
Bengi Yıldız, the deputy parliamentary group leader of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, argued that there is a shared responsibility. “We are all responsible for the grief experienced: the Parliament is, the government is, the people who rule Turkey are,” said Yıldız. “Nobody can escape from this responsibility. We all have the blood of those children on our hands.”
Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Şahin said the routine explanations after the deadly attacks do not satisfy the Turkish nation anymore. He recalled the statements made by the father of a fallen soldier on why the government and military cannot deal with the PKK, saying: “I am expecting a satisfactory explanation from the Chief of General Staff on the martyrs we lost today. So is the public.”
