Renewed Kurdish conflict angers Turks, overshadows election

chika ebuzor

August 28, 2015 7:16 AM

His brother was also an officer in the armed forces and the latest victim of renewed conflict in the mostly Kurdish southeast.

Two soldiers killed after convoy hits explosives in southeast Turkey

Clinging to his brother's coffin, draped in the red Turkish flag, Lieutenant Colonel Mehmet Alkan's outburst was a rare public show of defiance from a serving officer as Turkish jets bombard Kurdish militants.

"Who is his murderer? Who caused this? How come those who spoke of settlement until yesterday now speak of war," he shouted in front of television cameras as they filmed mourners, in thinly-veiled reference to Turkey's political leaders.

His brother was also an officer in the armed forces and the latest victim of renewed conflict in the mostly Kurdish southeast, where Turkey has launched air strikes on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in response to what it says are increased attacks on the security forces.

The violence has rekindled old wounds from a 30-year-old conflict and unleashed a wave of anger towards the pro-Kurdish opposition, President Tayyip Erdogan and the government, raising the prospects of a highly-charged campaign for a November election and concerns over security around the poll.

Erdogan and government ministers have done little to quell the flames at an already tense time for the NATO member as it battles slowing economic growth and risks blowback from its fight against Islamic State in Syria.

Nationalist anger has been directed at the pro-Kurdish opposition, which entered parliament as a party for the first time in June. Government ministers have meanwhile been booed and jeered at soldiers' funerals in rare shows of public frustration.

chika ebuzor