Kurdish struggle behind Turkey blasts
A man linked to the PKK has been arrested. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons claimed responsibility for one of yesterday's blasts. Then there are the implications of all this for Turkey's entry into Europe.
Ankara (AsiaNews) A man suspected of planning a terrorist attack was apprehended yesterday by Turkish police. The arrest followed a wave of blasts in coastal tourist resorts and in Istanbul. The man is suspected to belong to a Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The list of attacks in recent days sounds like dispatches from a war zone. Drop by drop, the bombing strategy aims to deal a blow to Turkey's tourism, a crucially important motor for the country's economy at this time of the year.
On 24 August, two bombs went off in the city of Adana in southern Turkey, injuring four people. On the evening of 27 August, a bomb exploded in a garden in Istanbul, injuring some people. Overnight, three bombs went off in Marmaris, a renowned tourist resort on the Turkish coast, injuring 27 people including 10 British tourists, when their minibus blew up on one of the city's main roads. Yesterday, 28 August, a bomb went off in the afternoon outside a café in Antalya, another very famous maritime city in Turkey, leaving two people dead.
Only one of these attacks was accounted for; the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons claimed responsibility for the Marmaris blast on their website. The Falcons are another Kurdish organization, linked to the PKK. Both groups issued warnings to tourists going to visit Turkey.
Kurds in Turkey number about 12 million, one out of every five residents.
Despite their heavy presence, the Turkish state has yet to find a decisive solution about their practically secular claims for autonomy and acknowledgement of their distinct identity.
This why after a truce that lasted for five years, in 2004, the Kongre-Gel rebels a party born from the ashes of the PKK announced it was about to resume armed struggle in Turkey. And since then, the Kurdish question has featured in the Turkish press through bomb blasts, attacks and murders in east Turkey as well in tourist zones.
Most Kurds do not approve of this, they do not support violence, but the PKK and its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who since 1999 has been the only inmate of the Turkish island-prison of Imrali in Marmara Sea, still exert enormous influence on the Kurdish political movement.
The upsurge of violence in recent days threatens to make the Kurdish question once again a problem of public order, to be quelled through the security forces. This type of solution is likely to appeal to many people on both sides, who would like the tension to remain high, forcing a return to a state of emergency, abolished in 2002, in the Kurdish region in eastern Turkey.
The Kurdish question, as a social and political issue, is still locked in a dead end. The Kurdish problem is linked to the challenge of Turkey's democratization. Until the state moves to reinforce the local administration to implement the use of the Kurdish language in teaching, to clarify that the people of the Republic of Turkey are not homogenous but multi-ethnic, the democratization process will remain unstable and entrusted to military operations conducted by the security forces. Although never publicly stated, one of the aims of the PKK is to sabotage Turkey's membership bid in the European Union, so it will be able to continue its war games. The Turkish army would not be sorry to see this come about, because the scenario would enable it to continue controlling an area that is strategic from a political and economical perspective on national and international levels.
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