Concerning the PKK’s motive for the attack, some see it as an attempt to damage the normalization of relations between Turkey and Iraq, while others think the PKK is trying to create a civil war in Turkey or bring Turkey into a confrontation with the United States. Milliyet’s Sami Kohen thinks that while many things can be said about the timing and motives of the PKK’s Aktütün attack, it is important to dwell on the external aspects of the issue. Kohen finds it meaningful that this attack came at a time when Turkey and the United States agreed to cooperate -- with the latter sharing real-time intelligence with Turkey -- in the fight against the PKK, when Turkey was experiencing better relations with the central government in Iraq and when Turkey was about to establish relations with the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq. “With its latest terror attack, the PKK showed that it still has a presence in northern Iraq despite Turkish-US cooperation. It also aimed to bring Turkey and the US face-to-face with Iraq,” says Kohen.
According to Radikal’s Altan Öymen, the intent behind the PKK attack is to create a civil war in the country, causing citizens to fight against each other. “They want the citizens of this country to become enemies and want conflicts to grow bigger, paving the way for a civil war,” he says. As for the next step, he says the PKK may not have thought about it very deeply. “There are examples in history where the calculations of terrorists in such movements only reach a certain extent. When you ask them about the next stage of their fight, they say it comes spontaneously. Others are also involved, they make the region a mess and there is a chance that the things they desire will come out of that mess. That is their expectation; they depend on chance the same way gamblers do,” explains Öymen.
“The PKK wants to make the fire grow bigger. It has set a trap for this. The PKK wants to advance in its aims for Turkey. It wants Turkey to fight with Iraqi Kurds and even come face to face with the United States,” says another Milliyet columnist, Hasan Cemal, commenting on the motives behind the PKK’s latest attack. According to Cemal, the PKK is aware that as long as the wave of violence and terror grows in this country, Turkish and Kurdish nationalism will grow, paving the way for the eruption of clashes over minor things. Regarding what Turkey should do to thwart the PKK’s plans, Cemal suggests that it should acknowledge that there is a Kurdish problem in this country nourishing the PKK and take measures to settle this problem first. “If Turkey wants to break a vicious circle, it has to develop an extensive strategy by first diagnosing the issue as a Kurdish problem,” states Cemal.
