After Kurdish Attacks, Turkey Beefs Up Major Offensive

ISTANBUL, Turkey (June 21) -- Turkish elite commandos today joined mechanized infantry units in a major operation against Kurdish rebels along the country's southern border with Iraq in response to attacks that left 12 Turkish soldiers dead over the weekend.

The deaths come after the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) earlier this month ended its 14-month cease-fire and began launching almost daily attacks on Turkish military and police.

In a statement e-mailed to AOL News, PKK spokesman Roj Welat said the cease-fire had become "meaningless" in the face of "the destructive and violent approach of the state." As a result, he said, the PKK had decided to "start a mid-intensity war."

The PKK claims 48 Turkish soldiers and 12 guerrillas have been killed in clashes from June 1 to June 14. The Turkish government says 43 members of its security forces and 120 PKK militants have died since an escalation in clashes with the PKK that began in March.

Turkish government forces have been bombing along the border with Iraq and last week launched a cross-border incursion into northern Iraq, where many of the PKK rebels are based.

At a service this past weekend to honor the 12 soldiers killed over the weekend, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to "annihilate" the PKK, which has been in armed conflict with Turkey for decades.

"The terrorists will drown in their own blood," he said. "Such kind of bloody attacks will not be able to divert the direction of our nation to grow and to be a strong and estimable country."

The rhetoric and the violence mark a definitive end to the so-called "Kurdish Initiative" launched by Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) last year. The initiative was meant to end the long-running civil war by better integrating the Kurds into the country and granting them more civil liberties, such as the use of the Kurdish language on television and de facto amnesty for PKK fighters who wanted to lay down arms and return to their villages.

However, after a group of PKK fighters crossed from northern Iraq back into Turkey in October 2009 and were welcomed as heroes by crowds of supporters, the AKP saw an immediate drop in its popularity and outcry from Turks who feared the returns would give legitimacy to past PKK actions. Opposition parties have claimed the government's initiative weakened the government's position against the Kurds, increasing the pressure on the government as the 2011 parliamentary elections approach.

"The AKP got scared and stopped the initiative," said Henri Barkey of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. "AKP realized it was losing support because of the results of the initiative and put it on deep freeze ahead of upcoming elections. There were a lot of pent-up expectations in the Kurdish areas. There were great expectations that the initiative would begin a long process of reconciliation. When it fizzled, the violence started again."

Founded in the 1970s, the PKK has waged war against Turkey since 1984. At first it demanded independence for Kurds in southeast Turkey, but it later lowered its demands to calling for an autonomous region and more rights for the Kurds. The group is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union. An estimated 40,000 people have been killed in the 26-year conflict.

Today, many Turks are wondering what the PKK is hoping to achieve by ending the cease-fire and returning to war.

"How can we negotiate with the PKK? Can the U.S. negotiate with al-Qaida?" asked a 28-year-old female AKP supporter in Istanbul who did not wish to be identified. "We offer the Kurds one thing, and they want more."

Hundreds of supporters of the Turkish military establishment, which upholds the secularist and nationalist traditions of modern Turkey's founder, Kemal Ataturk, held a rally against terrorism Sunday, marching down Istanbul's central Istiklal Avenue waving Turkish flags and demanding that the AKP intensify the fight against the Kurdish rebels.

"Turkey loses many young people to terrorism," said Saygin Sual, a 23-year-old student with an Ataturk tattoo across his forearm. "They were killed in action. We need to show our rage against terrorism. The attitude of the government, Erdogan and his team, they do not act against terrorism."

While the PKK has failed to achieve many of its primary objectives, it has continued its fight over the years because it believes it is gradually winning concessions from the Turkish government.

"If you were in Turkey 20 years ago, there was no talk of Kurds," said Barkey. "The PKK has helped make the Kurdish issue an everyday issue in Turkey. They have forced Turkey to come to terms with the fact that they have a Kurdish problem. The U.S. wars in Iraq have contributed to this, but the PKK is the biggest reason for this acknowledgment."

While the Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of Turkey's population, are likely to continue their fight far into the future, the current spike in violence is expected to have an immediate effect on Turkish politics.

"It is a very critical moment right now," said professor Emrullah Uslu, who specializes in the Kurdish issue at Istanbul's Yeditepe University. "If the situation goes like this and if the increase in PKK violence continues, certainly AKP will lose some of its power. This is a very critical moment for AKP."

Uslu said a resurgent PKK makes the AKP vulnerable to political attacks from its political opponents. "[Because of the AKP], people have been questioning the capability of the military and the intention of some generals and whether they could prevent some attacks," he said. "The Kemalists are questioning the intentions of the AKP government. The more violence there is, the greater the gap between the two will widen. You can't bring the pieces together."