‘When Justice and Development won by a landslide – a result that Mr. Erdogan interpreted as the public’s demand for stability – many had hoped it would lead to the revival of peace talks.’ That’s from The New York Times, who is out on Thursday with a look at Turkey’s escalating civil war.
To be sure, we haven’t been shy in our assessment of the conflict. We’ve branded the fighting a ‘civil war’ since the summer, when HDP’s strong showing at the ballot box derailed Erdogan’s efforts to transition the country to an executive presidency, a move which would help to strongman consolidate his power.
A subsequent suicide bombing in Suruc prompted the PKK to kill two Turkish policemen the group says were cooperating with Islamic State (which was blamed for the initial attack). That was more than Ankara needed to justify a crackdown on the PKK in the name of the war on ‘terror.’ From there, it was an all-out war between Erdogan and the Kurds, a conflict which quickly transformed cities like Cizre, into warzones.
As al-Jazeera wrote in August, government attacks ‘have put Cizre, a long-defiant bastion of pro-Kurdish sentiment, back on the front lines of a conflict that has cost more than 30,000 lives since 1984.’ Here’s some useful color from Vice:
This post was published at Zero Hedge on 12/31/2015.
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