EXTREME THREAT

Turkey continues to be shaken by a whirlwind of military and political events. At stake is the fate of the Turkish state itself and the country's security, which have become the target of bloody acts of terrorism.

In recent days a serious of heinous acts of terrorism were committed by militants from the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). The most serious was an explosives attack on two armoured vehicles belonging to the Turkish military in Hakkari province, near the Iraqi border. The terrorist attack, which led to the deaths of 16 servicemen, has convinced Turkish society that the state faces a challenge from terrorists whose goal is, in effect, the dissolution and destruction of the Turkish Republic. This extreme threat for the Turkish nation forces the administration in Ankara to take decisive measures in the battle with terrorism.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan directly warned that after the terrorist attack in Hakkari, Ankara's counter-terrorism measures will grow more severe. While leading an emergency meeting on security measures, the head of government Ahmet Davutoglu stated that the Turkish government will definitely destroy PKK militants and clear the country of militants at any cost.

Indeed, the Turkish ministry of defence did launch a massive aerial special operation against the terrorists in response to the terrorist attack in Hakkari. Bombers and fighters of the Turkish air force struck more than twenty PKK targets in primarily Kurdish-populated areas in the southeast of the country, as well as in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. Turkish special forces simultaneously launched what the government calls a "short-term" land operation in northern Iraq, where most of the PKK's bases are located. 

Kurdish terrorists, however, continue the bloodshed. In Igdir province they blew up a bus carrying police officers to a checkpoint in the village of Dilucu, which is located on the border of the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic in Azerbaijan. Turkish media reports say that the terrorist attack killed 13 people.

Later PKK militants made attacks on police in the Turkish province of Tunceli and launched a rocket attack on a government building in the district of Patnos. By all accounts, the Kurdish terrorists have no intention to stop their deadly actions, which every minute threaten the lives and safety of Turkey's citizens.

Faced with a real danger of the PKK expanding its terrorist activity, Ankara is forced to, as they say, "tighten the screws" - of course, only to a certain extent - within the country. For example, the government sent local authorities a memorandum on the topic of the fight with PKK and the prevention of possible public unrest. Now governors can, if necessary, ask for additional aid from the armed forces - that is, call in army units to pacify crowds within cities.

This move is justified by mass unrest in primarily Kurdish-populated provinces in the southeast of Turkey, as well as protests in a number of other cities elsewhere in the country. The latter include attacks on the offices of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which most of Turkish society considers to be the PKK's political wing. 

The HDP's leader, Selahattin Demirtas, in turn warned that Turkey is quickly moving "toward civil war", and expressed his solidarity with those who protest against the administration's policies in areas of the country populated by Kurds.  Meanwhile, it is obvious that Demirtas and other members of his party are worried about the HDP's fate in the upcoming parliamentary elections on November 1. The pro-Kurdish party entered the Grand National Assembly after elections that took place on June 7. However, now that president Erdogan has declared snap elections and Ankara has begun its battle against Kurdish terrorism, Demirtas's party's chances for electoral success seem quite doubtful.  

It comes as no surprise that Demirtas proposes that elections be postponed, since, in his view, the unstable situation in the country might have unpredictable effects on the results of the voting. However, in the eyes of the Turkish administration and most of Turkish society it is the HDP and Demirtas himself who are primarily to blame for the unpredictable situation in which Turkey finds itself.  This is proven by the public prosecutor initiating two cases against Demirtas, who is accused of insulting the Turkish nation and state, as well as promoting violence and advocating terrorism. 

The conflict between the government and the HDP and the Kurdish separatist movement as a whole is only part - albeit a rather large part - of growing tension in Turkey as part of pre-election campaigning. The conflict between the government and the so-called "parallel state" has also entered a new stage; Ankara accuses Hizmet movement leader Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim preacher living in the United States, of creating such a state. This is evidenced by searches at the offices of Koza Ipek Holding and 23 other companies that make up the influential media conglomerate, which is suspected of ties with Gulen's movement. The heightening of political passions as part of the fight with the "parallel state" also made itself known in widespread interest in a protest near the Istanbul headquarters of the newspaper Hurriyet. The protesters, who were mainly supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), threw stones at the newspaper's office, accusing it of slandering president Erdogan's actions. Executive editor of newspaper Hurriyet Sedat Ergin called the action "a black page in the history of Turkish democracy." 

It is worth noting that Ergin's argument was used by Western organizations as well, who are traditionally not squeamish about using any excuse to pressure Turkey and show the country "its place", which they say does not match the "values of the free world." In particular, the leaders of the EU and the European Council expressed great concern about police raids against Koza Ipek and the "suppression" of media criticizing the government.

Meanwhile complicated processes in Turkey are contributing to the destabilization of the entire region. This naturally worries Azerbaijan as well, since the growing instability in our neighbour and brother country has come right up to our borders. Additionally, it is clear that the increase in Kurdish terrorism also threatens the national interests of Azerbaijan, since Turkey is our closest strategic ally. The PKK in particular threatens the realization of major energy, transport, and communications projects launched by Baku and Ankara in the region. It is no accident that one of the Kurdish militants' terrorist attacks was a bombing attack on the Baku - Tbilisi - Erzerum gas pipeline. 

It is no secret to anyone that the Kurdish separatist movement has close ties with Armenia, which occupies a fifth of Azerbaijan's territory. Armenian leaders call Kurdish terrorists their allies in their battle against Turkey and the Turkish people. It seems that Turkish media reports that the Kurdish militants who carried out the attack in Igdir came from Armenia fit into this scheme of cooperation between Yerevan and the PKK. In addition, there is a theory that the PKK members who carried out the attack in Igdir were Armenians. 

Whatever the case, it is obvious that the interests of many of Ankara's enemies intertwined in the opposition to Turkey, the drive to destabilize the situation in our brother country, and the attempts to even put an end to its existence. In this case the Turkish nation and government are faced with truly fateful challenges, the solution of which interests not only Turkey itself, but also its friends and allies, its brother country of Azerbaijan most of all.