Abdullah Öcalan

It appears the mine explosion which blew up the armored patrol car in the mountainous Da?l?ca region near Turkey?s border with Iraq on the afternoon of Sept. 6 could be a trap for a bigger ambush by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK).

* The article was written before the outlawed PKK's deadly Da?l?ca attack on Sept. 6.

If stability also means predictability in both economy and politics, it is not valid for Turkey at all times.

It would have been very difficult for an observer to predict both the current political scene and the Kurdish issue as a major problem in Turkey six months ago.

Turkey?s political decision makers could have read the Arab Spring in a much different way. Demands for a better, more just country, better income distribution, a true hope for a better tomorrow were not pie-in-the-sky demands for Turkey?s leaders. Yet, they failed to read between the lines. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party?s (PKK) leadership did not.

Turkey is now a ?failed country? in many respects that is in total turmoil. Nevertheless, the failure of the Kurdish peace process and the return to arms is the most urgent problem. Most importantly, it costs lives, but freedoms also are suppressed on the pretext of the war on terror, while political crises are also deepening and the economy is sinking as a result.

A reader of my column has asked: Tayyip Erdo?an used to get votes because the coffins of martyrs were not in the news. Now it is said he will gain votes because the coffins of martyrs are once again in the public eye. How is this so? How come Tayyip Erdo?an gets votes both when the coffins come and when they don't come?

?They have not started the real fight yet,? my source told me. He was a man from Tunceli, in his 50s, once a leading member of a leftist group, now the founder of an NGO. He was in touch with all Kurdish groups, including the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) and the leadership of the Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP).

Outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) militants will not disarm or withdraw from Turkey as long as Ankara conducts ongoing airstrikes against PKK camps in Turkey and northern Iraq, according to an umbrella organization of Kurdish groups that includes the PKK.

The ?mral? committee, formed by members of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to mediate the Kurdish peace talks, says the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has lost its credibility on the Kurdish peace process and no longer gives the committee permission to meet with Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). 

Turkey has started air campaigns against both ISIL and the PKK. ISIL is the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the new bastion of the age-old militant Salafi menace in our region. The PKK, on the other hand, is the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party, a Marxist-Leninist outfit indigenous to Turkish Kurdistan.

British Ambassador to Ankara Richard Moore has called on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to end violence immediately so as to resume the peace process and solve the Kurdish issue.

Noting a recent meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Yalç?n Akdo?an, the ambassador said they had a fruitful meeting.