[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on Turkey and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Turkey Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each week`s roundup to turkey@jadaliyya.com by Sunday night of every week.]

English

Attacks on Kurds and the HDP

Can Turkey Pull Back from Brink of Civil Conflict? Amberin Zaman examines how international observers and officials have evaluated the rise in violence between the Turkish government and the PKK.

Grab Your Pitchforks and Torches, You Will Reach Your Target Özgür Korkmaz writes that the current political climate, where things become more polarized and more violent with every passing day, is not sustainable.

MHP`s Dangerous Dance with HDP Yasin Aktay suggests that the PKK and the MHP are both predicated on the irreconcilability of Turks with Kurds, and that the nationalists are therefore benefiting from the violent political atmosphere in Turkey today.

Military Curfews, Firebombings, Airstrikes, and Shattered Peace Deal: Is Turkey on Brink of Civil War? Democracy Now! interviews Zeynep Gambetti and Ayşe Berktay about the curfew in Cizre and the recent and ongoing violence against Kurds.

Cizre Cries for Help: "Turkey`s Kobane" under Siege Joris Leverink calls upon the international community to speak out against the injustices taking place in Cizre, as it did last year during ISIS’ assault on Kobane.

Turkey`s War on the Kurds Belén Fernández appraises the United States’ stance on and involvement in the Turkish government’s military campaigns of the past several weeks.

Erdoğan`s Violent Last Resort Alp Kayserilioğlu, Guney Işıkara, and Max Zirngast trace the evolution of the Turkish government’s approach to the Kurds, from the siege of Kobane up to the state of emergency and military curfew in Cizre of the past week.

Erdoğan Continues to Stir the Pot in Turkey Semih İdiz writes that President Erdoğan is becoming more and more explicit about his anti-democratic intentions, most recently by claiming that “If a party had managed to secure four hundred deputies or an amount of deputies to be able to change the constitution, the situation today would be very different.”

Media Crackdown

Pressure Mounts on Media along with Stress in Turkish Politics Murat Yetkin relays that on 8 September, a crowd of hundreds was brought—some of them in lorries—to the front of the Istanbul office of Hürriyet, Turkey’s most influential mainstream newspaper, where they started a protest against the paper that turned violent in minutes.

Hürriyet, the Unconquered Stronghold of the Secular Lifestyle Barçın Yinanç accuses President Erdoğan and the AKP of initiating and maintaining this financial, political, and social bullying of Hürriyet newspaper and the democratic and secular values associated with it.

Hürriyet and President Erdoğan’s Words on ‘400 deputies’ Faruk Bildirici notes that while the Office of the Prosecutor launched an investigation of Hürriyet’s tweet regarding President Erdoğan’s statement on the military operation in Dağlıca, which triggered pro-government attacks against the newspaper, there was no investigation of the attackers nor was anyone detained.

You Cannot Bring Peace by Attacking Newspapers İlnur Çevik reports that ultra-nationalists’ attacks against Hürriyet newspaper is spreading to other newspapers and televsion channels in Istanbul.

Kurdish Politics and Peace Process

PKK Raids May Trigger Turkish-Kurdish Social Strife Murat Yetkin claims that “the recent rise in attacks, after a hopeful three-year pause, especially as Turkey heads for a tense re-election,” has the potential to cause even more ethnic tension than has been seen over the course of the PKK’s armed resistance.

PKK Leaving the HDP in an Impossible Situation Semih İdiz writes that the PKK is “relying on the good press” that they received during the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq in order to legitimize the resumption of armed conflict with the Turkish state.

PKK Terrorism and Moral Clarity İbrahim Kalın, Spokesperson for President Erdoğan, argues that Erdoğan was not responsible for ending the peace and reconciliation process and that “the Western media is engaged in lionizing and romanticizing PKK violence.”

Southeastern Anatolia Does Not Belong to Kurds (1) - (2) According to İlnur Çevik, the HDP, aided by PKK violence, has pushed Kurdish populations in southeastern Anatolia to want secession from Turkey.

A Common Attitude against Terrorism Is Essential Nagehan Alçı suggests that the HDP misled its voting base by claiming that things would get better after the election.

Can Kılıçdaroğlu, Bahçeli, and Demirtaş Be Prosecuted? Markar Esayan argues that anti-AKP forces are planning a conspiracy “through the Gülenists, PKK, opposition parties, and the media.”

PKK`s IED Attacks Catch Turkish Military Off Guard Metin Gürcan discusses the rise in the PKK’s use of improvised explosive devices to impede movement of military forces, sever regional connections, and confound the state.

Six Reasons Why Turkey`s War against the PKK Won`t Last Kadri Gürsel claims that, if the current war continues, the violence could be brought to urban areas or across borders.

Turkish

Attacks on Kurds and the HDP and Curfew in Cizre

Cehennemin kapıları açıldı: Faşist tırmanış karşısında… Writing about escalating violence against Kurds across Turkey, Foti Benlisoy argues that President Erdoğan and the AKP gave consent to these lynch mobs in order to draw the public’s attention to “unrest created by Kurds” and criminalize the pro-Kurdish HDP.

1993’ten 2015’e, Sivas’tan Kırşehir’e… Ahmet Çınar points to the parallels between this week’s violence, where a far-right Turkish lynch mob burned a bookstore owned by a Kurdish person, and the 1993 Madımak Massacre, where thirty-five people, mostly Alevi intellectuals, were burned alive by a lynch mob in the name of religion.

İnanmıyorlar Deniz Sal writes that, despite many people’s efforts to make visible the news and images of Kurdish civilians died and were injured due to the military’s heavy attacks during an eight-day curfew in Cizre, Turkish people do not believe that the government is killing civilians.

Saray’ın kanlı oyunu, Leyla Zana’nın çığlığı! Hasan Cemal argues that escalating violence against Kurds across Turkey is caused by President Erdoğan’s “bloody game,” whose only purpose is to leave the pro-Kurdish HDP under the electoral threshold in the upcoming elections.  

Lice 93`ten Cizre 2015`e: Batsın sizin `Yeni Türkiye`niz! Celal Başlangıç draws attention to the hate speech-filled threats against Kurdish civilians being made by the Police Special Operations Units operating in Cizre during the curfew, which include phrases like "We will kill you all tonight, you Armenian seeds."

Türkiye`nin `Kristallnacht`ı`... (1)-(2) Cengiz Çandar argues that the 6-8 September attacks on Kurdish civilians and HDP offices across Turkey resemble 1938’s Kristallnacht, a series of coordinated deadly attacks against Jews in Nazi Germany.

Beştepe Cuntası ve Cizre ablukası According to Emrah Serbes, “if all those people and those experts making comments on television are able to call Kurds by their name, then they should first of all turn and thank the Kurdish movement. This people was only able to win the freedom to be called by its own name through a struggle that lasted forty years. Nobody bestowed that right upon the Kurds.”

Kurdish Politics and the Peace Process

Memlekete ‘nefes aldıracak’ olan, büyük ‘barış’ mitingleridir… According to Murat Sevinç, the only way to prevent Turkey from entering a deadly civil war is to organize “crowded peace demonstrations” across Turkey which would include all political parties that want to participate, the HDP and the CHP being in the first place, unions, NGOs, and everyone who wants to live “together” and live like a “human being.”

PKK Kürtleri niçin öldürtüyor/öldürüyor? Levent Gültekin accuses the PKK of “inviting the Turkish state to kill Kurdish civilians” by resisting against the idea of disarmament and by declaring “democratic autonomy” in Kurdish towns and cities.  

Genelkurmay bana cevap verdi ama… Criticizing the prevalent lack of transparency in relation to armed operations carried out against the PKK, Ezgi Başaran writes that she asked the Turkish General Staff the numbers and ranks of Turkish armed forces personnel who had died since 22 July 2015, as well as the number of PKK members who had been killed, but her inquiry was rejected.

Bir akil insan (heyeti üyesi) olarak… Fuat Keyman argues that everyone should separate the HDP and Kurds from the PKK, as for him it is the PKK that the Turkish state needs to fight with.

Other Pertinent Pieces

Eski ABD elçisi Edelman: Esas kaygımız Erdoğan’ın ne yapacağı Amberin Zaman interviews Eric Edelman, former US Ambassador to Turkey, about Turkey-US relations and the escalating violence and instability in Turkey. 

Published on Jadaliyya

On Post-Election State Violence in Turkey

Turkey`s Night of the Firebombs

Turkey’s Three-Front War?

`What Does the State Want from Dead Bodies?`: Suruç and the History of Unmournability

Ekin Wan’ın bedeninde ifşa olan devlet ya da kadınlar sıra bizde

Academics Call for Peace and Justice (Turkey)