Erdoğan's refusal to negotiate with the Kurds
The Turkish military is continuing its military offensive in the southeast of the country. Erdoğan has rejected the PKK as a partner in peace negotiations and has instead declared his intention of "liquidating" all PKK fighters. Can he be successful with this strategy?
Intimidation followed by negotiations
Erdoğan will return to the negotiating table once he's achieved his goals in the southeast of the country, the weekly paper of the Armenian minority Agos predicts:
“It is even to be assumed that Erdoğan will first use intimidation tactics and then resume negotiations. ... These actions that have been pushed through with tanks and guns most likely have no other goal than to create an atmosphere of unbridled violence and - if they work - to distance the region's population from the Kurdish movement. Should they be successful, in the worst case that will lead to a mass exodus from the region and changed voting patterns resulting from the new demographic structure.”
PKK crimes being blamed on the state
The Turkish state should lift the state of emergency measures in the southeast of the country, which it refers to as "security zones", advises the pro-government daily Yeni Şafak, noting that the state is being wrongly blamed for the civilian deaths resulting from the escalating violence there:
“Whenever access to health, food or education facilities is limited owing to the curfews, or when there are civilian deaths, destroyed houses and dead bodies strewn on the streets, the state is held responsible, and this is resulting in problems and accusations against it. Even though the PKK leadership in Kandil is responsible for the skirmishes, and blackmailing the people and human rights abuses are part of its strategy, this doesn't change the logic. If the security zones are left in place for too long it's clear that these problems will escalate.”