European Convention on Human Rights

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). 

Selahattin Demirta?, the co-chairman of the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP), is nowadays the focus of a denouncment campaign by Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu?s Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) government.

?Profiterole for the Kurds?? (this column, Sept. 10, 2009) recalled the early days of Kudistan Workers? Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan?s 1998-1999 odyssey, when a group of Kurds launched a hunger strike in Klafthmonos Square in Athens in protest of his arrest in Rome.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalç?n Akdo?an has accused the Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP) of exchanging efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue for surpassing the election threshold in the June 7 polls, adding the Kurdish issue-focused party was twisting the views of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK). 

The government?s refusal to provide legal guarantees for the PKK?s withdrawal, coupled with the construction of military fortresses, effectively ended the cease-fire in Turkey, HDP co-chair says The resolution process started with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers?

The government?s refusal to provide legal guarantees for the PKK?s withdrawal, coupled with the construction of military fortresses, effectively ended the cease-fire in Turkey, HDP co-chair says The resolution process started with Kurdistan Workers?

One of the sharp qualities of Turkish President Tayyip Erdo?an in politics is his ability to reduce every complicated problem into one known equation and try to solve that as it is.

This might be a simplistic approach to politics in today?s world, but it has worked for him during his 20-plus years in politics.