Turkey's Kurds should not pour fuel on the fire


The latest incidents at Turkey's southeastern border and the frequent extremist actions that have occurred in some southeastern cities and townships suggest that some people still have not fully grasped the value of the ongoing reconciliation process between Turkey and Kurds and are simply shopping for trouble.Turkey is going through a very sensitive period as hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria pile up at the border seeking refuge as violence by the Islamist extremists of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) continues to escalate. Turkey, which is already home to more than 1.5 million refugees from Syria and some from Iraq, is now facing the prospect of hosting a new wave of refugees from Syria who are mostly Kurds at the tune of 200,000 people, and the figure may well go up to 400,000.These people have fled ISIS brutality and the fierce fighting between religious extremists and Kurdish forces in Syria and more than 150,000 are already in Turkey being provided food and shelter. Turkey is again setting up good quality tent cities and refugee camps for them just like it did for the 1.5 million that came from Syria over the past three years.Despite all this, some Kurdish politicians in Turkey have the audacity to claim that Turkey is not doing enough and some are actually going so far as to claim that Turkey and ISIS have cooperated to wipe out Kurds.The Turkey they are accusing is actually building the most advanced camps for the refugees and operating them successfully with its own financial means, which is simply a massive burden that many western powers could not endure. The Turkish taxpayer is shouldering this burden, thus no one has the right to utter a word.Instead of applauding the Turkish authorities for all this, the fact that these Kurdish politicians in Turkey are displaying so much irresponsibility is simply disappointing. These Kurdish politicians and other activists are actually pouring fuel on the fire pretending they are assembling forces inside Turkey to cross the border into Syria to confront the ISIS extremists. When they are stopped by Turkish soldiers they accuse Turkey of siding with ISIS and then start attacking and stoning our soldiers. All this is opportunism at its highest level.Added to this are a series of attacks by Kurdish militants in various provinces where building sites have been attacked, where building machines have been torched and workers have been harassed. Add to this the ugly scenes of Kurdish militants blocking highways and doing identity checks.Then you have the controversy of Kurdish schools. Some activists started makeshift Kurdish schools knowing that the authorities would close them down. When the authorities took action to shut down the schools the Kurdish activists claimed it was a drive to prevent Kurdish children from receiving a proper education. Then the Kurds retaliated by burning down schools in southeastern Turkey.All this is raising eyebrows throughout Turkey where people are questioning the reconciliation process. People say the PKK and its sympathizers should understand the intense sensitivity at the southeastern border and stop pouring fuel on the fire.Selahattin Demirtaş, the leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) had created a wonderful atmosphere by becoming a candidate in the presidential election in August. It showed that Kurds have now passed the psychological barrier and are acting as a solid part of our society by producing a candidate for the presidency. But recent events have unfortunately cast a shadow on the intentions of some Kurdish politicians and some elements within the PKK. PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan should intervene to defuse the current negative situation.