With violence escalating among Turkey's Kurds, the Turkish military is tempted to clampdown hard. Gareth Jenkins reports Last Friday, Turkey's top generals lifted constraints on Turkish security forces in their war against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) amid signs that the PKK is stepping up its armed campaign for greater cultural rights for the country's 12-15 million Kurds. In recent months attacks on the Turkish security forces in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of the country have become an almost daily occurrence. On Friday five soldiers were killed by a bomb placed next to a military guesthouse in the province of Hakkari close to the Iraqi border, the highest death toll in a single attack on the Turkish security forces since the PKK abandoned its unilateral five year-old ceasefire in June 2004. The bombing came just days after three other soldiers were killed in PKK attacks, taking the total number of security personnel killed during the last year to over 120. Around 45 civilians and approximately 300 PKK militants have also lost their lives during the same period. The death toll is still very low compared with the 35,000 who are estimated to have been killed in the 15 years before the PKK announced a unilateral ceasefire in August 1999, following the capture and conviction of its leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is currently serving a life sentence on the prison island of Imrali just outside Istanbul. But since the ceasefire the Turkish authorities have made only token gestures in terms of lifting restrictions on the expression of a Kurdish identity and have rejected calls for a general amnesty for all former PKK members. Perhaps more critically, they have also failed to address the often desperate social and economic conditions in southeast Turkey, which have traditionally played an important role in fuelling support for the PKK. Even though the PKK is militarily much weaker than it was at the peak of its powers in the early 1990s, the recent escalation in violence has set alarm bells ringing in Ankara. In recent months the PKK has adopted a two-pronged strategy: attacking military targets with mines, bombs and long range sniper fire in the southeast of the country; and launching an urban bombing campaign in western Turkey, concentrating mainly on the tourism industry. In an attempt to protect one of the country's main sources of foreign currency, the Turkish government managed to downplay a string of attempted bombings in April when most of the bombs failed to explode. But last month a bomb in the Aegean resort of Kusadasi killed five people, two of them foreign tourists. While last Thursday two passers-by were killed in the Istanbul suburb of Pendik by a bomb which exploded prematurely while it was being hidden or transported. On Monday two men were killed in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul, apparently while trying to make a bomb. Last week another bomb placed outside a military facility in Istanbul was defused, while two bombs exploded in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, slightly injuring seven people. The strategy adopted by the PKK has forced the Turkish state onto the defensive and resulted in growing frustration at its apparently inability to respond. Last Friday, speaking at a ceremony to welcome Turkish peace-keepers back from Afghanistan, Chief of Staff General Hilmi Ozkok voiced the military's frustration at restrictions on the security forces' ability to search and detain suspected PKK supporters and, from the military's perceptive, the ease with which Kurdish nationalists can conduct propaganda activities. "Despite the constraints we are continuing to combat terrorism and shall continue to do so," he said. Privately, other members of the military have been less circumspect and have been calling for the Turkish government to reintroduce the draconian anti-terrorism legislation that was in place during the 1990s. Frustration at the recent escalation of violence has also further strained already tense relations with the US over Washington's refusal either to move against PKK camps in northern Iraq or to allow the Turkish military to do so. Yet, although striking at the camps would probably assuage some of the military's frustration, it is unlikely to have much impact on the PKK's operational capabilities. "If we go across then the PKK will just melt away and return when we have gone. We'll have the whole world against us and will come away empty-handed," said retired general Osman Pamukoglu, who commanded a Turkish commando brigade during a cross-border raid against PKK camps in Iraq in 1995. But neither does the government appear to have an alternative strategy. On Sunday Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced that he would meet some leftist Turkish intellectuals who have recently published a statement calling for an end to violence. But no Kurdish intellectuals have been invited to the meeting and there appears little sign of the Turkish authorities initiating a dialogue similar to the one launched by the British government, which last week led to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) finally unequivocally renouncing violence. "Actually, Erdogan's decision to hold the meeting is a positive sign," said one Kurdish nationalist. "Even if he hasn't invited any Kurds, at least he is acknowledging that there is a Kurdish problem. But do I think it will lead to anything? No, I don't."
