Speculation about Turkish civil war is just that
Clashes between Turkish security forces and the PKK are intensifying and becoming more violent.
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.
The PKK’s losses are mostly the subject of speculation. But intensive bombing of its heavy-weapons bases and its logistics, communications and training facilities by Turkish F-16s at northern Iraq’s Qandil, Zap, Avasin-Basyan and Metina regions caused massive destruction. When the PKK's losses in Turkey are added to the losses by aerial attacks, the group’s fatality toll is believed to count in the hundreds. The semi-official Anatolia News Agency quoted official sources as claiming the PKK has lost 390 fighters in Turkish air attacks.
In the latest incident on Aug. 10 in Istanbul’s Sultanbeyli district, three PKK militants and a police chief were killed. Within hours, two female militants of the radical leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), which supports the armed struggle of the PKK, targeted the US Consulate in Istanbul. One of the female attackers, a well-known DHKP-C militant, was wounded and caught.
