Have Turkey-PKK clashes crossed fatal threshold?
The PKK’s alleged shooting down of a Turkish assault helicopter marks a major development in the ongoing fighting between the two sides.
In an Aug. 13 article on the spiraling violence in Turkey, I argued that the shooting down of a Turkish warplane or helicopter by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) with a portable, shoulder-held, surface-to-air missile (MANPADS) would be a critical threshold for escalation. In a Dec. 14 article, I noted that the MANPADS threat had increased and that the PKK could use these systems against aerial targets inside Turkey.
Now it appears that this much-feared eventuality has come to pass.
A press note published on the official website of the Turkish General Staff on May 13 read, "A Cobra helicopter dispatched to intervene against terrorists suffered an accident at 0550 hours. In this fatal accident that is believed to have been caused by a technical problem, two of our comrades-in-arms were martyred."
But a day later, a video posted on pro-PKK social media accounts came as a shock. The two-minute video shows the shooting down of a AH-1W Super Cobra with a MANPADS missile.
