by VIJAY PRASHAD
A destroyed room is pictured at the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) headquarters after an overnight attack by protesters, in Ankara, Turkey, September 9, 2015 PHOTO/Reuters/Tumay Berkin/Newseeek
Across Turkey, coordinated attacks took place on September 8 against offices of the HDP – the People’s Democratic Party.
The HDP is not, strictly speaking, a Kurdish party – although that is how it is often described in the media.
It was formed in 2012 when a group of left-leaning political organisations – all with firm pro-Kurdish views – decided to form an electoral coalition. The similarity with Greece’s Syriza would not be unkind.
The HDP holds fairly conventional leftist positions – against nuclear power, for LGBT rights, against discrimination of minorities, for women’s equality.
So why have its offices from Ankara and elsewhere been rampaged and firebombed? Who has decided to let slip the dogs of war against the HDP?
The obvious culprit – obvious, because they arrived with flags – were the Grey Wolves of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). But they were not alone.
It is by now clear that other forces are lined up against the HDP, trying once more to link this capacious formation to the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).
As the Turkish government of Recip Tayyip Erdo?an has returned the country to war in July against the PKK, the HDP has taken the hit on its chin. It is not, therefore, merely the toxic Grey Wolves who have struck against the HDP. It is also the social forces that back President Erdo?an and his Justice and Development Party (AKP).
A few hours before the attack on the HDP headquarters, the Turkish air force and Special Forces units struck PKK bases in Avashin, Bazyan, Qandil and Zap – in Iraq.
The attack took place after PKK units ambushed a Turkish military convoy in Da?l?ca, killing 15 soldiers. The death of these soldiers provided Erdo?an with the opportunity he needed.
The Turkish troops have now opened a full-scale assault on PKK positions. Retaliations come on both sides, leading Turkey towards the worst period of a conflict that ran between 1984 and 2012, with a lull between 1999 and 2004.
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