Alwaght- During the recent month, a number of clashes have erupted between the urban branch of Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) and the Turkish police, army and security forces in the Kurdish-inhabited cities, southeast of the country.
Reacting to the city confrontations, the Turkish government has imposed curfew in many of the mostly Kurdish inhabited provinces including Diyar Bakr, Silopi, Cizre, and Sirnak. It has also used heavy weaponry to confront the militia forces belonging to the PKK and the rallies of the civilians who were protesting the wide range of the conflicts. All these measures by the Turkish government have pushed the life of the Turkey's Kurdish citizens in to a new stage. In the current conditions, due to both sides of strife showing a great deal of extremism, the life of the Kurds in Turkey has been reduced to a half-suspended state. So far, a large number of citizens have been killed as a result of the harsh attacks carried out by Turkey's army.
During the past ten days, a statement, signed by over 1000 people, has been released by the Turkish academic figures as well as the journalists, condemning the government's "crimes" in the Kurdish regions of the country. In response to the statement, Erdogan's government has launched a massive wave of arrests and attacks against the academics and the journalists. In a press conference, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at the statement publishers, calling them as "pro-PKK, despicable, cruel and deeply dark people" who have to move to the mountains and accept the PKK's membership.
Not only the operations by the military and security forces would not be halted in the southeastern regions, but also the attacks' range would be widened, added Erdogan. Erdogan's remarks could be interpreted that he does not heed the media and the public opinions, an approach leading to the fact that Turkey being known as the world's biggest prison for the journalists is not that much important for the country's government officials.
Furthermore, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), and Selahattin Demirtaş, the co-leader of People's Democratic Party (HDP), in their recent remarks have called Turkey's president as a "dictator". Severely condemning the Turkish government's policies in the Kurdish-populated areas of the country, Demirtaş has described Turkey's military operations as resulting in massacres and that they are crimes against the humanity. He also warned that a humanitarian crisis could take place. Reacting to the pro-Kurdish opposition leader, Erdogan has said that he would sue the opposition leader for calling him a dictator. In general, Erdogan's stances are seen to be like the history's dictators: anyone who is not walking in line with him is described as a traitor and enemy of the people's interests, but the difference is that the way of elimination of the opposition figures, due to the focus of the global media, could not be as easy as the earlier decades.
