Fifteen people were killed and hundreds injured last week as pro-Kurdish riots swept across Turkey, raising fears that rising communal tensions could trigger ethnic conflict, Gareth Jenkins reports Fifteen people were killed and hundreds injured last week as pro-Kurdish riots swept across Turkey. Supporters of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fought with the Turkish security forces in a dozen cities in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of the country. By the weekend the violence had spread to the streets of Istanbul, where groups of young Kurdish migrants from the countryside clashed with both police and Turkish nationalists, raising fears that communal tensions could trigger ethnic conflict. The violence started last Tuesday in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir when hundreds of PKK supporters fought with police at the funeral for four of the 14 PKK militants who had been killed two days earlier in a firefight with the Turkish military. Chanting pro- PKK slogans the demonstrators firebombed police stations, banks and post offices and attacked any shops or business premises which had ignored a call by the PKK to close for the day in respect for the slain militants. Over the next few days pro-PKK riots broke out in other Kurdish cities across southeast Turkey. A total of 12 demonstrators were killed, over 400 injured and more than 300 arrested. Three of the dead were children. The deaths triggered protests in the shantytowns that surround Istanbul and which are home to several million Kurdish migrants from the countryside. On Sunday afternoon, police in Istanbul broke up an attempted Kurdish demonstration in the central Taksim Square and struggled to control a mob of Turkish nationalists armed with clubs and knives who were attempting to lynch the Kurdish demonstrators. On Sunday evening, three people were killed in the Bagcilar district of Istanbul when a bus lurched out of control after being firebombed by another group of pro-PKK demonstrators. On Friday a street-seller in the Esenler district of Istanbul was killed and 13 bystanders injured when a bomb hidden in garbage can exploded. Two other bombs in the Aegean city of Izmir were defused before they could explode. Kurdish sources said all three attempted bombings were carried out by the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks, which is generally accepted to be a pseudonym used by the PKK for urban violence in western Turkey. Although some of the rioting appears to have been a spontaneous reaction to the deaths in previous demonstrations, sources close to the PKK claim that much of it was coordinated by the organisation as part of a deliberate strategy to open another battlefront on the streets of Turkey's cities in addition to waging a rural guerilla campaign. Since the winter snows began to melt last month there has been an upsurge in clashes between the Turkish security forces and PKK militants in the mountains of southeastern Turkey. In addition to the 14 deaths that triggered the demonstrations, on Friday a further seven PKK militants were killed in a firefight with Turkish soldiers just outside the town of Silopi close to Turkey's border with Iraq. The PKK has an estimated 5,000 militants under arms, mostly in southeastern Turkey or in camps just over the border in northern Iraq. Sources close to the PKK admit they do not have the resources to defeat the Turkish military on the battlefield. Last year the organisation conducted a largely unsuccessful bombing campaign targeting tourist areas in an attempt to put pressure on the Turkish government by damaging its main source of foreign currency. Intelligence reports indicate that the PKK is planning another bombing campaign this summer. However, the real fear is that the recent violence could trigger ethnic clashes between Turks and Kurds. Even at the peak of PKK violence in the early 1990s there were few incidents of inter- communal violence between Turks and Kurds. But times have changed. The last 18 months have witnessed an upsurge in ultra- nationalism in Turkey, which has frequently boiled over into vigilante violence and attempted lynchings of both Kurds and leftists. Last week in the city of Izmit 100km east of Istanbul two members of a leftist organisation who were attempting to stick up a poster narrowly escaped being lynched by a mob of Turkish ultra-nationalists. Even many middle-class Turks are now openly hostile towards Kurds. "I used to think of myself as a liberal but I don't know what I am anymore," admitted Nermin, a 38-year-old filmmaker. "Now I get really uncomfortable when I see all these Kurds talking Kurdish on the streets of Istanbul. I have started to see them all as potential terrorists or criminals who are going to hit me and try to steal my bag." The rise in ultra-nationalism in Turkey is being fed by a deteriorating economy, a rise in unemployment and violent crime and a general sense of hopelessness. Three years after a crushing electoral victory brought it to power, the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (JDP) appears to have lost direction and, like so many of its predecessors, become mired in allegations of graft and corruption. Despite the official launch of EU accession negotiations expect the Europeans ever to grant Turkey full membership, while Ankara's ties with the US remain strained. Even though Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last week became the first Turkish head of government ever to attend the Arab summit when he flew to Sudan, Turkey doesn't enjoy a good relationship with other countries in the region. The feeling of international isolation is being accompanied by an increasing siege mentality at home. It is a combustible mixture; and the fear is that tensions over the Kurdish issue could provide the spark. "I'm gloomy," said professor Dogu Ergil of Ankara University, a longtime student of the Kurdish problem. "Not that I am a pessimist but we leave problems unsolved and keep tripping over them for decades. The poison of nationalist ideology is spreading along with a confrontational mood. The danger of gangrene is disturbing me. I hope I'm wrong."
