TEN TURKISH soldiers died yesterday in two separate attacks blamed on Kurdish militants, in an outbreak of political violence that deals a heavy blow to efforts to end a war that has killed more than 40,000 people since 1984.
Nine soldiers died just after dawn when a roadside bomb blew up their armoured personnel carrier on a dirt road near the town of Lice, in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.
Gen Ilker Basbug, Turkey’s chief of staff, told a news conference in Ankara that the explosion was caused by a homemade bomb “either remote-controlled or detonated by cable”.
Early in the afternoon, another soldier died when assailants opened fire on a unit returning from operations in mountains 483km (300) miles southeast of Lice.
Gen Basbug did not blame any group for the morning attack, but both attacks are widely assumed to have been the work of the former separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been at war with Turkey for 25 years.
PKK spokesmen in the group’s bases in Iraqi Kurdistan were unavailable for comment.
The deadliest since 17 soldiers died last November in a PKK attack near Turkey’s Iraqi border, yesterday’s attacks came as hopes began to fade that a recent raft of liberalising policies might open the way for a political solution to Turkey’s Kurdish problem. A country that denied the existence of Kurds until 1993, Turkey launched a Kurdish-language television channel in January.
Recent months have also seen a rapprochement between Turkey and Iraqi Kurds, whose growing autonomy Ankara had long seen as a potential red rag to its own Kurds.
Ankara also accused Iraqi Kurdish leaders of doing too little to limit PKK activity on its territory.
For several months, Iraqi Kurdish politicians have been working on plans to hold a pan-Kurdish conference in northern Iraq aimed at persuading the PKK to lay down its weapons for good.
Earlier this month, the PKK announced a ceasefire aimed at facilitating the political process.
Some commentators argue yesterday’s attacks may be the work of PKK hardliners opposed to the peace process. But many agree Ankara is in part to blame.
Leading political commentator Cengiz Candar said the Turkish detente was built on shaky foundations from the start.
“Everybody agrees the fighting has to stop but nobody dares to take the necessary steps,” he said. “It’s like wanting to go to heaven but not wanting to die.”
An early sign that all was not well came on April 13th, when Rojin, a Kurdish pop star who hosted the new Kurdish television channel’s most popular show, resigned complaining that the management was treating her like a “potential criminal”. Turkish newspapers subsequently reported that three Kurdish-speaking police intelligence officers had been appointed to the board overseeing the station.
But Ankara’s key weakness has been its ongoing refusal to talk to a Kurdish nationalist party – many of whose voters sympathise with the PKK – which has 21 deputies in parliament.
A closure case was opened against the party in 2008. The court has yet to rule.
While Turkey’s religious-rooted AK Party had a majority of votes in Kurdish areas, its leader’s refusal to shake hands with his Kurdish nationalist counterpart in parliament was justifiable, at a stretch.
But at local elections on March 29th, Kurdish voters voted overwhelming along ethnic lines, sweeping the AK Party out of municipalities across the region.
“We had hoped the AK Party would interpret the results as a sign for the need for improved dialogue,” said Selahattin Demirtas, a leading Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputy.
“Instead, the state seems to have decided to punish us.”
Since April 14th, police have arrested more than 300 DTP members across the country. Some 200 are still in custody.
“Whether you like them or not, [the DTP] represent a majority of democratic votes in Kurdish areas,” said Mr Candar. “You have to talk to them.” Failing to do so, he added, meant “showing Kurds the road to the mountains”.