What course will the Kurdish peace process take after President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan moves to Cankaya Palace? This is Turkey's most critical question these days. Both the government and the Kurdish side have made encouraging statements to dispel the uncertainty, but the process, swayed by constant ups and downs, is certainly not immune to incidents that may cause its derailment.
Take for instance the killing of three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants — despite the cease-fire — in two separate incidents in Van province. According to media reports, the first incident on Aug. 7 was the result of soldiers “firing at PKK members who defied warnings to stop.” Yet, Kurdish sources told Al-Monitor that it involved a sniper assassinating a regional PKK commander.
The most rattling incident occurred in Lice, a district near Diyarbakir, the largest city of the mainly Kurdish southeast. On Aug. 15, the 30th anniversary of the PKK’s first armed action in 1984, a statue of PKK founder Mahsun Korkmaz was erected in Lice at a memorial cemetery dedicated to slain PKK guerrillas, inflaming Turkish nationalist sentiment against the peace process. Following a criminal complaint by the Diyarbakir governor’s office, a court ruled on Aug. 18 that the monument should be demolished. Paramilitary police tore down the structure the following day in an operation that claimed the life of one person and left two others injured.
Well, who would erect a monument whose demolition was a foregone conclusion, and for what purpose? Why did the public authorities stand by while the monument was erected? Why were military means used in a crisis that could have been overcome through dialogue? Not surprisingly, the prevailing question on social media was: Why did you look the other way if you planned to demolish it?
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
