InfoAnda - Analysis: Violence dims hope of solution to Turkish Kurd conflict |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Oral Roberts remembered as charismatic leader | 22 December 2009
Porn company building underground Apocalypse bunker | 15 September 2011
Latest James Bond movie breaks UK box office record | | 5 December 2012

India demands strong action from Pakistan | 1 December 2008

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Analysis: Violence dims hope of solution to Turkish Kurd conflict |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Technology Media Small Business Legal Deals Earnings Social Pulse Business Video The Freeland File Aerospace & Defense Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia India Insight World Video Reuters Investigates Decoder Politics Politics Home Election 2012 Campaign Polling Political Punchlines Supreme Court Politics Video Tech Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Tech Tonic Social Pulse Opinion Breakingviews Money Money Home Tax Break Lipper Awards 2012 Global Investing MuniLand Unstructured Finance Linda Stern Mark Miller John Wasik James Saft Analyst Research Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Money Clip Investing 201 Life Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Video Reuters TV Reuters News Article Comments (0) Pictures Editor's choice Our best photos from the last 24 hours. Slideshow Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Something Wilde: Book returned to Chicago library after 78 years 31 Aug 2012 At Jackson Hole, a growing fear for Fed independence 02 Sep 2012 UPDATE 1-Netanyahu urges international "red lines" to stop Iran 02 Sep 2012 Samsung's crisis culture: a driver and a drawback 02 Sep 2012 Obama, Romney tied as Democrats go into convention: Reuters/Ipsos poll 02 Sep 2012 Discussed 73 Romney tells voters to move on from Obama disappointment 52 At Jackson Hole, a growing fear for Fed’s independence 48 Exclusive: Pentagon threatens legal action over bin Laden book Sponsored Links Pictures Reuters Photojournalism Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more | Photo caption Tech toys make noise The IFA consumer electronics fair kicks off in Berlin, showcasing the world's latest tech gadgets. Slideshow Burning Man Strange sights at the Burning Man 2012 arts and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Slideshow Analysis: Violence dims hope of solution to Turkish Kurd conflict Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Syrian rebels hit back at Assad's air power Sat, Sep 1 2012 Analysis: Syrian Kurds sense freedom, power struggle awaits Fri, Aug 31 2012 Syrian opposition group not up to job, says ex-member Wed, Aug 29 2012 WRAPUP 3-Turkey urges U.N. to protect refugees inside Syria Wed, Aug 29 2012 Syria refugee exodus raises pressure for buffer zone Tue, Aug 28 2012 Analysis & Opinion No policy easing this week in Turkey and Chile Egypt should realize Israel is not the enemy Related Topics World » Turkey » By Daren Butler ISTANBUL | Mon Sep 3, 2012 4:01am EDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Images of smiling Kurdish MPs hugging rebels, rifles slung over their shoulders, at a remote roadblock in Turkey's mountainous southeast hit a raw nerve. The embrace, depicted in Turkish newspapers as battles raged with government troops, fed a climate of animosity which is undermining hopes of a revival of secret talks to end a 28-year-old separatist conflict. Escalating violence could instead now entrench a primarily military response from Ankara to an insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people. Nine Turkish police and soldiers were killed over the weekend in clashes with Kurdish rebels. The roadside meeting came as Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels, inspired by the growing influence of an allied Kurdish group in Syria, laid siege to Turkey's mountainous district of Semdinli bordering Iraq and Iran. "It is a vicious cycle," said Soner Cagaptay from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Whenever there is a spike in violence, Turkey's willingness to consider a political solution becomes weaker." Ankara sees the hand of Damascus in the PKK's new found energy, accusing it of arming the rebels and allowing a PKK-linked party to control parts of Syria to prevent locals joining the 17-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. "The PKK has been excited by the developments in Syria and is trying to prove its worth and credibility by trying to take parts of Turkish territory, however temporarily," Cagaptay said. In a show of strength, the PKK has set up roadblocks and kidnapped Turkish officials and is believed to be behind recent deadly bomb attacks on the western coast of Turkey and in the city of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border. "The aim of these acts is to show that no place in Turkey is safe, that they are capable of spreading terrorism to every region...and prove their control and influence," said retired major general Armagan Kuloglu, an analyst at a think-tank in Ankara. He said the attacks were aimed to sow discord between Kurds and Turks. The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, had little prospect of drawing Ankara back to the negotiating table with such a strategy. Talking to the PKK was long unpalatable to Turkish public opinion. While recordings leaked last year from secret meetings in Oslo between the intelligence service and the outlawed group suggested times may have changed, that window for negotiations may be closing. Erdogan, whose opening to the rebels was unprecedented, will be under pressure to adopt a harder line on the Kurdish problem as he seeks broad right-wing support ahead of his expected bid for a restyled, powerful executive presidency in 2014. Those talks were a bold and risky move by Erdogan, with many Turks viewing them as a charade. The roadside embraces did little to bolster the image of Kurdish politicians as credible interlocutors, serving rather as fuel for those who oppose a negotiated end to the war. Progress towards a political solution has also been stymied by mutual recriminations among political parties over the issue, which led the government to block a debate on the violence in parliament this month. In an apparent bid to revive political discussion, Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek issued a plan stressing the need for a more democratic and liberal constitution and measures to boost economic development in the southeast. "This problem is not one that can be solved purely by security measures," Cicek wrote in an 11-point plan to end the insurgency. "It requires all political parties, NGOs and all sections of society to act responsibly together in harmony." Government spokesman Bulent Arinc swiftly dismissed Cicek's plan while a deputy leader of Erdogan's AK Party blamed opposition parties for the impasse, saying they had rejected government bids to work together on a solution. CRACKDOWN ON ACTIVISTS Besides the human toll, the conflict has hampered economic development in one of Turkey's poorest corners and has added to instability in an already fragile region bordering Iran, Iraq and Syria. Turkey's policy on the Kurdish problem also sits uneasily alongside its courting of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, from where Ankara imports oil and with whom it is increasingly a significant investment and trading partner. While the Syrian chaos has fed the violence, analysts say the PKK is also encouraged by the belief Kurds have been alienated by a nationwide crackdown on Kurdish activists in Turkey. Police have arrested thousands of activists accused of involvement in the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK), an alleged parallel state apparatus formed by the PKK. "The indiscriminate, wholesale detention of Kurdish activists has suffocated the Kurdish political movement and left little breathing room for it in the political arena," said Sedat Ergin, columnist with the Hurriyet daily. The PKK is also exploiting disappointment at a stalled government initiative in recent years to boost the rights of some 12-15 million Kurds in Turkey, mainly through language and cultural reforms. "The PKK has decided to further polarize the situation by using the intense disappointment with the government strategy," said Henri Barkey, an international relations professor at Lehigh University. The reforms have failed to satisfy increasingly emboldened Kurdish politicians, who demand Kurdish autonomy and called last month for the release of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan - an idea which would enrage a vast majority of Turks. Ocalan, jailed on an island near Istanbul since 1999, has not seen his lawyers or family members for the last year. Kurdish politicians' growing defiance was illustrated dramatically by their warm response to the PKK rebels who halted them at the Semdinli roadblock. The pictures of the impromptu meeting triggered an investigation by the state and opposition calls to lift their immunity from prosecution. Nearly all of the nine MPs in the delegation were from the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), the most popular in the southeast alongside the AK Party. The incident could add to the risk of it being banned like other pro-Kurdish parties before it. The European Union has called on the BDP to clearly distance itself from the PKK. But while the BDP rejects violence or any material link to the militants it shares a similar goal of Kurdish autonomy and looks sympathetically on them. "Embracing them is a completely humane thing because we see those people as our children," BDP co-chairperson Gultan Kisanak told Reuters in an interview. (Additional reporting by Tulay Karadeniz and Pinar Aydinli; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Ralph Boulton) World Turkey Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Support Corrections Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices Copyright Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Monday, 3 September 2012
Questioning Rio's boom
Massacre trial exposes inconvenient truth for India's BJP |
Unification Church head Sun Myung Moon dies in South Korea |
Thirteen police injured in Northern Ireland sectarian clashes |
Samsung's crisis culture: a driver and a drawback |
Thriller Possession leads U.S., Canadian box office charts |
Love him or loathe him? Malick film splits Venice |
Rebels hit army headquarters in Damascus |
Greek PM sings in tune, now must hit the hard notes |
Two American consulate employees wounded in Pakistan bomb attack |
Analysis: Germany's triangulated opposition |
Analysis: Violence dims hope of solution to Turkish Kurd conflict |
Cambodia considers Swedish request on Pirate Bay co-founder |
Australia, Kabul argue over deadly search for rogue Afghan killer |
Cambodia considers Swedish request on Pirate Bay co-founder |
Logitech says well set for holiday season sales |
China's Baidu to invest $1.6 billion to set up cloud computing centre |
Raindrops Keep Fallin' songwriter Hal David dies at 91 |
South Africa police fire tear gas as mine unrest spreads |
Israeli officials play down report of Iran-U.S. deal |
Clinton warns against coercion in South China Sea dispute |
Argentina's latest trade dispute challenges U.S. over lemons |
Gaza teenager burns himself to death in poverty protest |
Russia says will retaliate if Britain has blacklisted officials |
Egypt's veiled news anchor stirs debate |
Kenya charges Muslim cleric with inciting Mombasa riots |
Ericsson in pole position to buy Nokia Siemens unit: report |
Samsung to review 250 Chinese suppliers for labor violations |
Hon Hai chairman demands management role at Japan's Sharp |
U.S., Canadian zoos use apps to teach apes |
Oscar race underway as Phoenix, Hoffman wow Venice |
The Possession grips Labor Day weekend box office |
Female Saudi film director breaks taboos in Venice |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph	VPN on MacOSX	BlogMeter 1.01