Page 20 - TURKRptOct22

2.5 Suicide attack in Turkey awakens ghosts that promise violence ahead of elections
The People’s Defence Forces (HPG), a unit of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Turkey’s Mediterranean city of Mersin. The claim was outlined in a statement released by HPG on September 29.
The attack, carried out on September 26, involved two women initially targeting police officers in front of Tece Police House, an accommodation facility for police officers, with rifles. The women died after they detonated explosives in their backpacks. One police officer was killed, another was wounded.
In April, Turkey launched an offensive against the PKK in northern Iraq. Since then, the “cemetery” in the press release section of the Turkish defence ministry website has been expanding.
In the spring, when the snow melts in the mountainous Iraqi region where the PKK is based, the Turkish state and the PKK traditionally launch a season of bloody attacks. They have been fighting for more than four decades.
Also in April, the PKK appeared to carry out two small bomb attacks in Bursa and Istanbul. One casualty was reported in Bursa.
Since August, Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds in northern Syria has escalated. Observers of the conflict concluded that Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan—who by law must step aside or set a date for a re-election bid to take place within the next nine months—got a green light for limited attacks in the region at a meeting with Vladimir Putin, who also has troops in Syria.
As the attacks in Turkey are yet to cause much human carnage in the cities, the Mersin incident has not made much impact with Turks. However, concerns over a June-November 2015 scenario are developing, as the attack reminded analysts of the Ceylanpinar incident.
In March 2015, Erdogan said during an election rally in Gaziantep province: “My brothers and sisters, give me 400 seats in parliament and let this job be resolved in peace.”
Also in March 2015, Erdogan threw a wrench in the Turkish government’s peace talks with the PKK. After Erdogan was in 2014 elected as president, his Justice and Development Party (AKP) was steering the government.
The rise of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey is a problem for both Erdogan and the PKK. The PKK would have no reason to exist if the HDP was properly accepted into the Turkish political system. The HDP, meanwhile, steals the AKP’s Kurdish votes when there is no war. It seems that whenever Erdogan’s prospects would be improved by some violence that raises tensions in society, the PKK does what it takes.
Erdogan repeated his demand for 400 seats during that election campaign of seven years ago as a two-thirds majority in the 550-seat parliament would provide him with the power to rewrite the constitutional law without the blessing of a referendum ‘yes’ vote.
In June 2015, however, the Turks did not provide the 400 seats at the polls and the “job” was not resolved in peace. Erdogan also lost his parliamentary majority.
20 TURKEY Country Report October 2022 www.intellinews.com