Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Thursday reacted to Kurds' declaring autonomy in the southeastern parts of the country following clashes with Turkish security forces, saying no one should confuse Turkey and believe it is the same as war-torn Syria. "Here is not Syria, no one can declare cantons of his own volition. The administration system in a democratic country, a state of law [and] how to advance is clear," Davutoglu was quoted by Hurriyet daily as saying in his televised remarks aired on pro-government TV station A Haber. After the recent outbreak of violence between the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Turkish security forces, which also ended a settlement process that had lasted years, Kurds, in particular the Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement (YDG-H) -- a youth branch of the PKK-- declared autonomy in some districts in Turkey's southeastern provinces. In a statement on Aug. 12, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella group that includes the PKK, said the people's assemblies in Silopi, Cizre and Nusaybin had declared that they would not recognize any state institution and would "exercise their legitimate right to self-defense if [their] self-governance is attacked." After the June 7 general election, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) lost its majority in Parliament and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) passed the 10 percent election threshold, winning 80 seats in Parliament. The collapse of the Kurdish settlement process came soon after, a process which was launched in 2011 to resolve the country's decades-old Kurdish problem, in which Kurds' cultural and political rights have not been recognized by the state as equal to those of other ethnic groups. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the end of the settlement process soon after the election results were officially announced and accused the HDP and its Co-chairperson Selahattin Demirtaş of provoking the recent violence. Since then, the PKK has staged attacks on Turkish military outposts on a regular basis, causing dozens of security services personnel to be killed or wounded.
