The media coverage of Turkey's counter-terrorism campaign often suffers from misinformation, prejudice and bias. Many Western news organizations, for instance, tend to describe security operations against the PKK, an armed group recognized by Turkey, the European Union and the U.S. as a terrorist organization, as a crackdown on the Kurds – as if the group represented Turkey's Kurds or the government targeted an ethnic group as opposed to an armed organization. Reporters also tend to ignore the fact that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), led by President Masoud Barzani, is one of Turkey's closest allies in the Middle East. In contrast, what doesn't fit the broader narrative often goes unnoticed: Last weekend, PKK militants perpetrated an attack in downtown Diyarbakır, Turkey's largest Kurdish city killing 11 people – two police officers and nine Kurdish civilians.
With notable exceptions, international media outlets have committed the same mistakes in their coverage of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). In the wake of his detention last week, HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş was described by an Istanbul-based reporter as the Kurdish Obama – which is misleading because Mr. Demirtaş could not maintain the momentum he initially gained due to his friends in the media. In retrospect, the Turkish public never got over the fact that the HDP leader instigated the violent protests of Oct. 6-8, 2014 that led to the brutal killing of 55 people on the streets. It would be worthwhile to go back and browse articles published by columnists once sympathetic to Mr. Demirtaş and the HDP.
The above-mentioned mistakes aren't unique to international reporters either. In a recent TV interview, a seasoned political commentator invoked the cliché that the HDP co-chair had been able to turn his cause into the cause of all Kurds – which made me wonder where the Kurdish community stands on the HDP detentions. Since the detentions took place over the weekend, no reliable surveys have yet been published on the issue. However, how the Kurds reacted to the detentions of some HDP mayors last month and rumors about thousands of PKK-affiliated public servants being sacked could provide some insights.
A study conducted by Pollmark, one of Turkey's most prominent polling companies, reveals that a significant part of the Kurdish community supported PKK-affiliated mayors being replaced by public-appointed trustees. While 65.7 percent of participants said they agreed with the appointments, 22.8 percent voiced their objection to the measures taken. Among Kurdish participants, the approval level drops to 38.7 percent – which is still strikingly high - while 14.4 percent said they were undecided. In other words, there is considerable support among Turkey's Kurds for the recently introduced counter-terrorism measures.
As part of the same study, participants were asked what they thought about the removal of several thousand PKK affiliates from public service. While 64.4 percent of the general population supports the proposed measures, 24.7 percent are against them. In comparison, 48.6 percent of opposition voters believe that the counter-terrorism measures are justified – which means that the measures aren't exclusively backed by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) base. How about the Kurds? According to the study, 41.7 percent of the Kurdish community supports the removal of PKK-affiliated civil servants from their posts, whereas 43.6 percent are against the plan. The same survey revealed that 14.7 percent were undecided.
The Pollmark survey indicates that the majority of Turkey's Kurds could support strict counter-terrorism measures against the PKK and PKK-affiliated individuals within the HDP. The lesson that the international media should draw from the above-mentioned study is that the PKK doesn't represent the Kurdish community but a small minority in Turkey. Let's stick to the facts instead of distorting the truth.
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