Turkey Hit for Supporting the West

Turkey's AK Party has gained support in the two months since it lost a general election in June. It could even recover the absolute majority it lost, according to the latest poll of Turkish pollster MAK. The poll is the second in a week to show that the AK Party founded by President Tayyip Erdogan would be able to form a single-party government. The rapid turnaround is explained by the rising violence between government forces and Kurdish militants that translates into support for the AKP. The AKP would secure 44.7% of the vote if a snap election were held immediately, MAK found. This is almost 4% more than the 40.9% it gained in June, which was its worst result for more than a decade. Negotiations to form a coalition government after the June 7 general election have been sidetracked by Turkey's offensive against Kurdish and ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq, and its effort to combat the rising violence between government forces and Kurdish militants in southeast Turkey. Critics have charged that Erdogan wants to use the crackdown on militants to gain more support from nationalists and pave the way for a snap election. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is set to meet with the main opposition CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu to discuss a new coalition, but leaders of both parties say forming a coalition will be difficult. The MAK poll found that the vote for the secular CHP and the nationalist MHP would remain almost unchanged while the pro-Kurdish HDP would fall to 10.7%, from its 13% in the June election. Over half of the 5,500 people polled by MAK in 20 Turkish provinces between August 4 and 8 said the operations carried out against ISIS and Kurdish militants were a necessity. Last week, a separate poll by SONAR also found that the AKP could secure enough support to regain its parliamentary majority. Turkey has been in a heightened state of alert since starting a "synchronized war on terror" last month. It has launched air strikes against ISIS fighters in Syria and against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq. It has also rounded up hundreds of suspected militants at home. ~~~~~ Yesterday's violence in Turkey, resulting in 9 deaths, supports the analysis that Erdogan's AK Party is benefitting from increased violence in, and on the borders of, Turkey. ~~~~~ Yesterday, two women fired shots at the US consulate in Istanbul. A Turkish far-left group said one of its members carried out the attack, saying in a statement on its website that the United States was an "enemy of the peoples of the Middle East." The Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and Turkey, has claimed responsibility for similar past attacks, including a suicide bombing at the US embassy in Ankara in 2013 that killed a Turkish security guard. Yesterday's attack on the US consulate was carried out by two women, one of whom has been captured after being wounded, as reported by the Istanbul governor's office on Monday. The Dogan news agency said the wounded woman was aged 51 and had served prison time for being a suspected member of the DHKP-C. A US consular official said : "We are working with Turkish authorities to investigate the incident. The Consulate General remains closed to the public until further notice." Turkey's foreign ministry condemned the attack and said security at US diplomatic missions was being tightened. Police with automatic rifles cordoned off streets around the US consulate in the Sariyer district on the European side of Istanbul. The attack came a day after the US sent six F-16 fighter jets and 300 personnel to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey as part of coalition efforts to fight ISIS. ~~~~~ The Istanbul governor's office also confirmed that three attackers and one police officer were killed in a separate attack on an Istanbul police station. A vehicle packed with explosives was used in the attack that also injured three police officers and seven civilians, according to police. CNN Turk said the officer was a senior member of the bomb squad who had been sent to investigate the attacks. ~~~~~ Shooting continued yesterday morning in Istanbul's Sultanbeyli district on the Asian side of the Bosphorus waterway, which divides Istanbul, as police carried out raids. ~~~~~ Four police officers were killed, and one wounded, when their armored vehicle was hit by roadside explosives in the town of Silopi, the governor's office in the province of Sirnak said. In a separate Sirnak attack, a soldier was killed when Kurdish militants opened fire on a military helicopter, as reported by the military. Security sources said at least seven other soldiers were wounded in the attack, which occurred during the helicopter take-off. ~~~~~ ~~~~~ Dear readers, Turkey opened its air bases to the US-led coalition against ISIS last month after years of reluctance. Turkey also started its own bombing raids when a suspected ISIS suicide bomber killed 32 people in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border. Turkey called the operations a war on terrorist groups "without distinction," simultaneously launching air strikes on PKK targets in Iraq and in southeastern Turkey, and has arrested more than 1,300 people suspected of links to Islamist, Kurdish and far-left groups. Turkey's decision was high-risk because of its position straddling Europe and the Middle East and because it is a Moslem country. In addition, Turkey depends on tourism for 10% of its income, leaving it exposed to the threat of reprisals against tourists, as well as reduced tourism income. The decision also has resulted in increased violence between security forces and suspected militants in the mainly Kurdish southeast. The Turkish military has also launched an air campaign against PKK camps in northern Iraq. State-run Anadolu news agency said on Sunday that more than 260 militants have been killed, including senior PKK figures, and more than 400 have been wounded as of August 1st. The violence has left the peace process with the PKK, begun by President Tayyip Erdogan in 2012, in tatters. The PKK, designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, launched its insurgency in 1984 to press for greater Kurdish rights. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. But, Turkey's decision to partner with the US against ISIS has also scrambled its relationship with Kurds -- it has fought the terrorist PKK for years; it accepts non-PKK Kurds living in Turkey; it views the Kurds in Syria fighting with the US as acceptable but because they are intermingled with PKK, Turkey doesn't welcome them either inside Turkey or in the northern Syria free zone that Turkey is trying to secure as an asylum for the 1.7 million displaced Syrians who are now refugees in Turkey. What the 30 million Kurds want is their own country and Turkey, which fears this, is worried that the US relationship with successful Kurd militia may in the future make Kurdistan a reality. The tensions and increase in terrorist attacks inside Turkey, often by the Kurdish PKK, can be expected to continue. After all, Turkey is a NATO member now permitting US air strikes launched from its territory. Turkey is, in effect, the closest, easiest Western target for ISIS, the PKK and other jihadist militant terrorists. Despite Turkey's often-troubling politics, we should remember that its role is complex and difficult and that it is tending in the right direction -- the proof may be that today Iranian foreign minister Zarif postponed a visit to Turkey, the Turkish foreign ministry announced, without giving a reason.