Turkish deputy PM blames jailed PKK leader for provoking street violence

Despite overall optimistic messages by Turkish government officials declaring their resolve for advancing the stalled peace process, a key Cabinet member has suggested that the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) actually fueled the fire during recent deadly protests.

“I believe that [PKK leader Abdullah] Öcalan played a role,” Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan said in an interview with NTV late on Oct. 22, when asked about recent street violence in the predominantly Kurdish eastern and southeastern provinces.

The unrest, which peaked on Oct. 6 and 7, led to the death of dozens of people in clashes between rival groups, following protests over the government’s perceived inaction toward Syrian Kurds besieged by jihadists in the Syrian border town of Kobane.

“I have the conviction that the message delivered by Öcalan provoked these incidents,” Akdoğan added, referring the message delivered by the PKK head’s brother, Mehmet Öcalan, on Oct. 6, following a visit by the latter to İmralı Island prison in the Sea of Marmara. Mehmet Öcalan quoted his brother as saying that they “will wait until Oct. 15 for a resolution. After that, there will be nothing that we can do.”

The street violence

“There is no such date set as Oct. 15. What is this Oct. 15 all about? Sometimes, there is a state of affairs, a wind blowing either from Kandil or the HDP,” Akdoğan added, referring to the Kandil Mountains where other PKK leaders are headquartered and to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a key player in the Kurdish political movement represented in Parliament. Both are directly involved in the process aimed at ending the three-decade-long conflict between the PKK and Turkey’s...