About a week after my July 16 column titled “Is Turkey on brink of more violence?” Turkey was indeed caught up in a major spiral of violence. It started with the Islamic State (IS) suicide bomb attack July 20 in Suruc.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party’s (PKK) execution of two policemen in their beds in Sanliurfa as retaliation for the Suruc bombing triggered sustained clashes between Turkish security forces and the PKK. On the 25th day of clashes, the death toll stood at 26 security personnel and six civilians.