Turkey's 'IS' crackdown revives Kurdish conflict

[unhappycamper]

http://www.dw.com/en/turkeys-is-crackdown-revives-kurdish-conflict/a-18611163

Now that Erdogan has called off the Kurdish peace process, critics worry that the campaign against 'IS' is being eclipsed by the revival of Turkey's war against the PKK. Noah Blaser reports from Istanbul.

Turkey's 'IS' crackdown revives Kurdish conflict
Noah Blaser
28.07.2015

In the aftermath of the Suruc suicide bombing last week, Turkey ended its long reluctance to confront the self-declared "Islamic State" (IS), opening a key airbase to US warplanes, cracking down on jihadist militants at home, and unveiling plans to create an IS-free zone along a stretch of border controlled by the extremist group.

Turkey's government had blamed the attack in Suruc on IS forces, but the flight of Turkish F-16s that struck a dozen targets in the mountains of northern Iraq with a barrage of precision-guided missiles were aiming for another foe altogether. The warplanes struck the secluded leadership of the separatist Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has waged a deadly insurgency for self rule in southeastern Turkey for the past three decades.

Critics now worry that Ankara's commitment to its newest war is being eclipsed by the sudden revival of its oldest.

This week, PKK-affiliated groups killed at least seven security officers in Istanbul and the country's southeast, decisively ending a ceasefire announced by jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan announced in early 2013.The PKK has been stirred from dormancy by the war in Syria.

[DetlefK]

1. Do you want to know how Abdullah Ocalan ended up in a turkish jail?

He was wanted for terrorism-charges in Turkey, but he lived a comfortable life in Germany with other exiled Kurds.

The problem: Ocallan and the PKK operated a huge racketeering ring that blackmailed his fellow Kurds.

That's what got him into a german jail. And from there he was sent straight to a turkish jail.