Erdogan Wants 400 Deputies to Stop the Violence

• 09.08.2015, 11:54
•  Region,  World

Turkey's internal political situation has clearly deteriorated, the violence has spread all over the country. An undisclosed number of Turkish soldiers were killed in a major attack in the southeastern province of Hakkari conducted by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Hurriyet reports. This is the deadliest attack since July. The PKK said it had killed 15 members of the armed forces. According to the Turkish media, more than 70 Turkish soldiers have been killed till now.

The Turkish Air Forces responded with more cruel attacks. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the attack in a statement and said in an interview late on Sunday on the A Haber TV channel that the fight against the PKK would now become more determined. He said 2,000 PKK militants had been killed since the conflict resumed, Today’s Zaman reports.

Under these circumstances Turkey prepares for parliamentary elections. The opposition says it is not possible to hold elections in the southeastern provinces due to the raging violence. However, Erdogan says the elections will be held, "no matter what the conditions are". "The only way out is the ballot boxes," he stressed. Erdogan has said the current situation in Turkey would be different if one party had secured 400 deputies and drafted a new Constitution. "Give us 400 deputies and let this issue be solved peacefully," Erdogan said.

At the same time political parties blame the President for drawing country into violence and destabilizing the situation.  Republican People’s Party and Peoples’ Democratic Party said "leading people to death has no justification".

On the background of the political instability and violence Turkish economy has suffered greatly. Due to low growth and a high dollar rate the national income in dollars has fallen so much that a question has risen whether Turkey still belongs to the G-20 league. Hurriyet reminds that this is happening to Turkey for the first time since 2009. But with the inflow of foreign investors in the following years, the economy and the per capita income grew once more. But it is not expected that a similar cycle will be experienced after 2015. The reason is that both Turkey’s economic, political and geopolitical risks are high and the international circumstances are not in favor of Turkey.

Erdogan now faces the results of his actions, the country has fallen into a real crisis. It is hard to imagine how the AK party will introduce the killing of the Turkish soldiers to its society, but one thing is obvious - it will use these killings for "legitimizing" its actions against the PKK and Kurds in general. And this has already started: Davutoglu has declared that they will "clear" the country from PKK fighters.