On July 17, Turkey was shaken by news of the assassination of a Turkish diplomat on duty abroad. The assassination may signal the opening of a new phase in the bloody 35-year-old conflict between Turkey and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey — along with several Western powers, including the United States — considers a terrorist organization.
Osman Kose — although not officially identified as associated with the Turkish intelligence agency but said to be on a special mission as a diplomat at Turkey’s consulate in northern Iraq’s Erbil — was assassinated inside of a high-class Turkish restaurant in Erbil with a silenced gun fired from short range.