The rekindled conflict between the Turkish military and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is increasingly spilling over into urban areas and claiming civilian lives. Governors in a number of cities and districts in the predominantly Kurdish southeast have imposed curfews, and military and government authorities have declared a series of special security zones in residential and rural areas, restricting the population’s freedom of movement.

With draconian security measures and restrictions on daily life on the one hand, and the unrest stirred by the PKK and its urban youth wing on the other, economic life in the impoverished region has taken a significant hit. The Kurdish peace process, assisted by a state of nonhostility between the PKK and Ankara, had revitalized the economy of the southeast, encouraging new investment projects, business initiatives and tourism. Since July 20, the situation has suffered visible setbacks, with investors suspending projects or fleeing the region.

In Diyarbakir, the largest city in the southeast, 20 out of some 170 factories in the local industrial zone have reportedly closed. Travel agencies have largely canceled tours to historic and tourist areas in the southeast, with the hotel occupancy rate plunging from more than 80% to 30%. Many small shopkeepers and tradesmen are shuttering their businesses, worried about their own safety and the security of their shops.

The conflicts in neighboring Iraq and Syria, exacerbated by Islamic State terror, have already dealt a serious blow to Turkish exports to the Middle East, leaving Iran as virtually the only available export route. Now this route is also jeopardized, with three border crossings in Agri, Van and Hakkari provinces closed because of PKK abductions of customs officers. Each of these border crossings had an annual trade volume of up to $150 million in addition to some 50,000 Iranian tourists crossing into Turkey. All this activity has come to a standstill.