Erdogan must drop personal ambition and ease tensions with Turkey’s Kurds

Wednesday’s bomb attack on a military convoy in Ankara was the fifth on Turkish soil in less than a year, bringing an unprecedented level of conflict to a country that, once upon a time, stood out for its relative tranquillity compared to its politically tumultuous neighbours. Like many countries, Turkey is finding it difficult to meet the security challenges emanating from the bloody, internationalised five-year war across its border in Syria. But Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has also itself to blame, having recklessly acquiesced to jihadist groups entering Syria across its borders and establishing a presence in Turkey to arm and fund their campaign to overthrow the Assad regime.

Attacks in Turkey over the past year, including those directly targeting civilians, have been attributed to jihadist groups such as Islamic State. Other jihadist groups that have recently emerged and thrived under Turkish patronage include Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.

However, the Turkish government has already attributed Wednesday’s attack to Kurdish group the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) or its sister-group in Syria, the Democratic Union party (PYD). Both have denied involvement.

After a two-year ceasefire, conflict between Turkey and the PKK has been renewed over the past year, which has led to destruction in multiple towns and cities in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated south-east. Yet if the government’s contentions about Wednesday’s attacks are true, the path to a solution becomes much clearer.

Turkey and its population are familiar with the PKK. It has, for the past 40 years, fought the Turkish state, initially for Kurdish statehood. It now seeks integration for the country’s 20 million oppressed Kurds by way of greater political and cultural rights. The PKK has members and supporters among NGOs, teachers, trade unions, grass-roots organisations and other elements of civil society.

These realities are not lost on the Turkish population or the country’s president,Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has previously argued that the PKK cannot be defeated through military force and has advocated negotiations and a lasting settlement with the group.