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Following the growing unrest and security turmoil in Turkey, yesterday (19th October) more than 20 Turkish soldiers were killed by PKK fighters in the province of Hakari. Turkish President Gul has promised his nation to avenge the incident and the prime minister ordered a new bombardment of the border and sent Turkish armed forces four kilometres into the territory of south Kurdistan.
The President of Kurdistan, Masud Barzani, in his telephone contact with the Turkish prime minster condemned the PKK attack and called for calm and reconciliation without resort to armed conflict. The KRG issued a similar condemnation, stating that the PKK attack will not solve the problems or serve our Kurdish cause in the region. The statement calls for the issues to be resolved without armed conflict.
We are left wondering why the Turkish state did not condemn the deaths of innocent people when its air force recently wiped out an entire family of Kurds in south Kurdistan. As we and many others have said, the bloody conflict between the PKK and the Turkish military will not be resolved militarily. There needs to be a genuine will for a political solution based on the Kurds’ right to self determination.
