According to security experts and strategists on terrorism, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is responsible for the high number of soldier killings by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as the government's flawed security policies and intelligence vulnerability left police and soldiers helpless against terrorists. Experts believe that wrong security policies and intelligence vulnerability during the Kurdish settlement process, launched by the AK Party government in 2012 with the PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan to end Turkey's long-standing Kurdish problem, crippled the operational ability of the police and army and provided a means for terrorists to increase their capacity and organize terrorist acts. Sixteen Turkish soldiers were killed and six others injured in a PKK attack on Sept. 6 in Daglıca, Hakkari province, after PKK terrorists detonated roadside explosives on two military vehicles as they left the Dağlıca Battalion Command around 3 p.m. to deploy soldiers for a military operation in the area on Sunday. More than 120 police officers and soldiers have been killed in PKK terrorist attacks across Turkey since the June 7 general election. Members of the AK Party and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have publically stated that they know how many explosives have been stored by the PKK in Turkey since March of this year; however, they were also criticized for not taking the necessary precautions against terrorism. It was also during the settlement process that the AK Party gave governors of certain provinces in southeast Turkey the authority to authorize military action against terrorists and told governors to instruct the police and army in the southeastern provinces not to interfere with PKK activities in the region. Speaking in a press conference in Parliament on Sept. 8, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) parliamentary group deputy chairman Oktay Vural said governors in the southeastern provinces have rejected more than 1,000 requests from the army so far to conduct operations against the PKK during the settlement process. In another press conference on Sept. 9, opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman and spokesman Haluk Koc said some cities have been turned into "arsenals" as the PKK stored arms in the cities during the settlement process.
