Turkey warns 'other powers' it sees behind deadly PKK attack

Kurdish militants launched their most deadly attacks in years on Turkish soldiers and police on Wednesday, killing at least 24 and prompting cross border raids into northern Iraq and airstrikes by Turkish forces.

The attacks by the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, and the robust response by the Turkish government, risk wider resumption of a conflict that has left 40,000 dead since 1984, but been quieter since political efforts to provide greater Kurdish rights commenced in 2009.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed: “We will never bow to any attack from inside or outside Turkey.”

The Wednesday attacks came after a roadside bomb on Tuesday that killed five Turkish soldiers and three civilians – among them a four-year-old girl. The PKK is considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.

"Whoever supports terror, feeds it and helps it; whoever tolerates it and ignores its inhumane attacks, tries to cover the bloody face of terror," said Erdogan. "I want to let them all know that Turkey is breathing down their necks all the time."

The Turkish leader reached further, too, blaming unnamed local actors for trying to end Turkey's rise as a regional power. The latest attack, Erdogan said, showed that "terror is a tool in the hands of certain powers. The PKK are subcontractors used by other forces and other powers, trying to provoke Turkish society."

Some 600 Turkish mountain commandos were reportedly deployed five miles into northern Iraq looking for targets, backed up by helicopter gunships, according to Turkish media. By mid-afternoon local time, reports emerged that 15 PKK militants had been killed.

"No one should forget that those who make us suffer this pain will be made to suffer even stronger," President Abdullah Gul said. "They will see that the vengeance for these attacks will be great."

Erdogan and the Turkish foreign minister cancelled trips abroad, and Turkey's top military commanders traveled to the remote southeast districts of Cukurca and Yuksekova in Hakkari Province, where ethnic Kurds dominate the region.

Warnings to Iraq

Turkey last week warned Iraqi authorities to deal with attacks staged from its soil, saying its “patience” was running out. Despite the potential regional reverberations, the timing of the attacks fits a previous pattern, experts say.

The PKK "tends to escalate" attacks every fall, when they have "maximum maneuverability" before the onset of winter, says Fadi Hakura, a Turkey specialist at the Chatham House think tank in London.

The current PKK strikes are taking place at a time of rising political frustration among Turkey's ethnic Kurds – a political "failure of expectations" among Kurds, met by a "hardening" government stance, says Mr. Hakura – but Turkey's military action in northern Iraq is likely to be limited.

"One could expect a more extensive ground incursion into northern Iraq, but this has been tried repeatedly in the past and has not degraded substantially PKK capabilities of carrying out attacks in Turkey," says Hakura.

Camps in northern Iraq

The PKK has long operated from camps in northern Iraq's Qandil mountains. In the latest episode of the years-long conflict, Turkish forces have stepped up attacks against the PKK since August, often using intelligence provided by the United States.

The PKK killed 13 soldiers in a July ambush, and nine more in August – prompting retaliatory airstrikes that Turkey says killed 160 PKK rebels.

Relative peace has prevailed, however, while Turkey's Kurds waited for the results of a high-profile 2009 "Kurdish Opening" by Erdogan's ruling Justice & Development Party (AKP). While it made some progress on permitting Kurdish cultural rights for the first time, its development initiatives failed to meet expectations.

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