[lbo-talk] Turkish offensive against Kurdish urban centres

[Marv Gandall]

Turkish troops backed by armour and air power are now assaulting Kurdish population centres in the country’s southeast following President Tayyip Erdogan’s pledge last week to “annihilate” the young Kurdish militants who have been defending their encircled towns and cities behind barricades since the summer. 

The scale of assistance being provided by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to the young rebels is still unclear. If the PKK sends advanced weapons and its experienced fighters from its mountain redoubts to join the urban uprising and takes the fight to Istanbul and other major cities, it will take the decades-long conflict between Kurds and the Turkish state to a whole new level. Here’s how one analyst with close ties to the Turkish military assessed the options facing both the PKK and the Erdogan regime.

The US and EU have remained silent in the face of its NATO ally’s decision to attack the Kurds and the widespread civilian suffering which has ensued. 

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/12/turkey-clashes-between-pkk-and-security-forces-civil-war.html?utm_source=Al-Monitor+Newsletter+%5BEnglish%5D&utm_campaign=a8525c03e0-Week_in_review_December_21_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_28264b27a0-a8525c03e0-102408969