Only nine months ago, after an announcement by Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who proclaimed "We call our people to turn everywhere into Kobani," some 51 people were killed on Oct. 6-8. The series of murders began with the atrocious slaughtering of three civilians, one of whom was only 16, after militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) raided an Islamic non-governmental organization in Diyarbakır province, accusing the NGO of being a proponent of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). In particular, I use the word "atrocious," since their methods of killing were reminiscent of ISIS. The 16-year-old high school student named Yasin Börü was run over by a car after being stabbed and thrown from a balcony. The indignation stirred by this murder led Hezbollah militants to kill PKK proponents in "retaliation." These incidents resulted in 51 deaths.
Lately, some 32 citizens were killed in the explosion that took place in Şanlıurfa province's Suruç town on July 20. Following the attack, likely organized by ISIS, Demirtaş said, "Our people should provide their own security." This call is reminiscent of the Oct. 6-8 tragedy, and an article published by PKK media outlet ANF said, "The youth's share of duty is to dispose of ISIS members who are engaging in activities under the umbrella of an aid agency."
In this way, the PKK, which accuses Turkey of supporting ISIS, would deal another major blow to Turkey, which has already received a major blow from ISIS with the Suruç attack. On the same day as the attack, the PKK also killed one military officer. The following day it murdered two police officers, shooting them in the neck after breaking into their homes in Şanlıurfa's Ceylanpınar town.
On the same day, the PKK's youth wing, the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), shot Mürsel Gül, a 45-year-old tradesman with two children, while he was about to enter his home in Istanbul. Gül died at the scene of the incident. His only wrong was being religious and having a beard! YDG-H militants previously attacked another man in the same neighborhood, an employee of a telephone retailer, on the grounds that he had a beard.
Again on the same day in Adana province, Ethem Türkmen, a member of the Kalem (Pen) Foundation, a moderate Islamic non-governmental organization known for its affinity to Ikhwan, and which has hosted Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu before, was murdered in front of his children in his home. His crime was the same: being religious and having a beard.
Although ISIS has not openly taken the blame for the Suruç attack, it called Turkey to a counter-fight, referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as an unbeliever and referring to the Republic of Turkey as "tağut" (a word of Arabic origin that is used to refer to those rebelling against Allah) in their journal published in Turkish.
The PKK also called Erdoğan and the Turkish state an "enemy and murderer of Kurds," which is their method of declaring someone an unbeliever.
Turkey is paying heavily for its active
fight against ISIS and the aid it provided to the People's Protection Units (YPG) for this cause even though it is a wing of the PKK. Turkey, the country that opened its gates to 192,000 civilians from Kobani, saving them from an ISIS threat, cured more than 1,000 injured YPG militants in its hospitals, allowed the passage of heavily armed peshmerga units from Iraqi Kurdistan to Kobani two times, undertook its most progressive reforms regarding the Kurdish question in the last three years and conducted an official reconciliation process with the PKK, does not deserve what is happening right now.Turkey now has to maintain an effective fight against terrorism on two fronts. The international support provided during the country's fight against both ISIS and the PKK will reveal who the genuine friends of Turkey are.
