Gülen Movement-affiliated daily Today's Zaman columnists Ahmet Turan Alkan and Ali Bulaç drew criticism due to their remarks on Mehtap TV concerning the PKK's attacks and Turkey's airstrikes against PKK positions in Iraq.

Criticizing Ankara's efforts to fight against the terrorist organization, Bulaç said the PKK issue will not end with airstrikes as people lose their lives on both sides.

"There is a PKK issue. With this method we follow [against the PKK], it will not be possible to end this tragedy for years. Why [is the PKK headquarters in the] Qandil Mountains being bombed since two [Turkish] police officers have been killed?" Bulaç asked, noting that Ankara launched airstrikes against PKK camps many times before, but no effective result was reached.

Pointing to the economic burden of airstrikes on PKK camps, Alkan said bombing is not an effective solution, but that discussion is an option. He continued: "All these bombings require money, but you can go there and discuss the situation in an atmosphere of brotherhood. It has no economic burden. Why do we not do that?"

The Gülen Movement, which is accused of infiltrating key governmental institutions in an alleged attempt to overthrow the government, is believed to put many people in prison through investigations and operations conducted by its operatives in law enforcement agencies and the judiciary. The alliance between the government and the movement began with the Feb. 7, 2012 operation allegedly carried out by the movement against National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Chief Hakan Fidan for holding talks with the PKK in Oslo to end the decades-long conflict with the PKK as part of the reconciliation process.

Depicting the Turkish Armed Forces' (TSK) fight against the PKK with two political reasons, Bulaç said it is either a tactic to provoke the PKK into combat or undermine the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) and its Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş.

Some have begun to criticize the HDP and Demirtaş more harshly since the HDP, having based its main pre-election strategy on being a uniting political party advocating for peace, the HDP is yet to fulfill its promises following a series of conflicting statements in favor of the PKK, which has left some voters displeased. Some recent surveys also show a drop of a couple percentage points in HDP support.

Also, the editor-in-chief of Today's Zaman, Bülent Keneş, raised eyebrows with a statement on Twitter after gendarmerie commander in Malazgirt in eastern Muş province, Major Aslan Kulaksız, was seriously wounded in an armed PKK attack later dying at hospital. Keneş said he had never voted for the HDP or Demirtaş, but if the party manages to remove the PKK from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's plans, he would do so.

For months, government officials, including Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, reiterated the claim that there is a relation between the PKK and the Gülen Movement as the government says it has documents that prove the relations. In December, Davutoğlu said that the government is well aware of the talks and contacts between the Gülen Movement and the PKK, and added that the public also has a right to know about these relations.

After the Suruç suicide bombing in southeastern Turkey, which killed 32 and wounded more than 100, the HDP and PKK blamed the government for allowing the massacre to occur. Since then the PKK has been implicated in the killing of 11 Turkish officers.

Following the PKK killings, Ankara intensified its counterterror operations, conducting many airstrikes against ISIS and the PKK in the country as well as in Syria and Iraq.

The Gülen Movement is considered a national threat by the government as it is accused of wiretapping thousands of people, including government officials, encrypted phones and infiltrating state institutions with the alleged aim of toppling the government. The movement is led by Fethullah Gülen who lives in self-imposed exile in the U.S.