Tears and Destruction Amid Turkey PKK Crackdown

Parts of Turkey’s southeast region, near the country’s border with Syria and Iraq, has transformed into a war zone. For Turkey, the fight is internal, not against Islamic State extremists, but a Kurdish minority group. “The heart of the battle is Diyarbakir, where the Sur neighbourhood has been under curfew for weeks, as Turkish police and military flush out rebel fighters from the PKK – the Kurdistan Workers' Party,” reports Mark Lowen for BBC News. Turkey, the United States and the European Union regard PKK as a terrorist organization. “A two-year ceasefire broke down last July, plunging swathes of south-eastern Turkey back into armed conflict.” Kurds have been a leading force against the Islamic State, and the US and EU criticize Turkey for prioritizing the fight against PKK over the Islamic State; some critics suggest “that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reignited the PKK battle in order to crush support for the pro-Kurdish party in parliament.” The minority party won enough seats to prevent the president from making changes to the country’s constitution to secure more power. – YaleGlobal