Escalating street violence sparks fear, anxiety countrywide

Clashes erupted in İstanbul's busy Beyoğlu district on Sunday as around 200 Kurds protesting at the closure of a leading Kurdish party clashed with Turkish nationalists and police. There was tension between Turkish and Kurdish groups in other cities as well, leading commentators to compare the images and express concern and fear about further violence.

Protesters hurled stones and explosive devices at shops, cars and businesses in Beyoğlu, the heart of the shopping and entertainment district of Turkey's biggest city, before a group of knife-wielding Turkish nationalists gathered and tried to attack them.

Riot police separated the groups and dispersed the protestors in what was the third day of violent street protest since Turkey's highest court ruled to dissolve the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), dealing a blow to government efforts to end decades of separatist violence.

Meanwhile, nationalists who pulled guns on the protestors were identified on the city’s security cameras and detained yesterday by the police. Three individuals caught on camera were detained by the Beyoğlu Police Department’s anti-terror teams. All three were released after testifying to prosecutors.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also spoke of the Beyoğlu violence yesterday. He said it was wrong to exaggerate local incidents. “We can overcome this as long as our nation stands in unity. As long as [political party] leaders speaking at rallies do their best to increase tension in the [Kurdish initiative] process, we will have these difficulties. But we will overcome them with our people, not with those leaders.” He said while it was true that there were occasional disturbances in some areas, it was not right for the media to air these images over and over again in a way that exaggerates the extent of what really happened.

Police officers clashed with protesters who staged illegal demonstrations to protest the closure of the DTP on Sunday in Hakkari’s Yüksekova district.

Late on Sunday police had closed the street leading to the main DTP office in the Bahçelievler district of İstanbul, and a police armored vehicle stood guard. In İstanbul’s Sancaktepe area, two city buses heading to their terminal after dropping off passengers were stoned by DTP supporters protesting the party’s closure. In the southeast of Turkey, the focus of most violent protest since the ruling, demonstrators hurled fire bombs and rocks at riot police in the town of Yüksekova. Police fired shots into the air to disperse the crowds. Several protesters were arrested.

‘Does the PKK want civil war?’

According to Sedat Laçiner, head of the International Strategic Research Organization (USAK/ISRO), the street clashes are the result of conscious efforts to announce martial law in the Southeast. Laçiner also criticized the DTP for the party’s failure to take the initiative into its own hands and instead rely on the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, for guidance and directives. Laçiner said he suspected the PKK and possibly even those circles that attempted to overthrow the government could be behind the recent aggravation. Attempts to unseat the government have been indicated by military documents that are now included as evidence in the trial of a group called Ergenekon, which includes suspected members of a junta inside the military as well as civilians from a wide range of backgrounds. He claimed that these groups were trying to mastermind a civil war. “I don’t know if Öcalan is involved,” he wrote in an article published on the USAK Web site yesterday, “but it is obvious that there are two distinct groups behind this. In a situation where Öcalan would be ready to do anything, he is asked to get out of jail, the PKK used both his situation and Turkey’s desire to democratize.” According to Laçiner, as the process of democratization unwound, those groups closer to the PKK inside the DTP stepped in, and did all they could to make sure the party was closed and that chaos rules on the street.

He said the PKK was seeking a civil war to revive itself. “As long as there is bloodshed on the street, in İstanbul, Diyarbakır and so on, they will not even have to attack targets.”

Meanwhile, the former deputy chairman of the now-defunct DTP’s parliamentary group, Selahattin Demirtaş, a Diyarbakır deputy, accused the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) of provoking Turkish nationalists. He said they weren’t against democratically expressing reactions but that they were against every reaction that went beyond this. “Calls from us to prevent incidents from turning into violence are not enough. The CHP and the MHP are provoking people instead of calling for calm. They need to call for calm in a serious and consistent manner.” Demirtaş said the use of weapons on the street might result in serious consequences.

Meanwhile, MHP Beyoğlu District Chairman Osman Gür said the individuals who attacked protestors with knives in Sunday’s clashes were not affiliated with the MHP, even though they were making the “grey wolf” hand sign. He said the fight was not political and that Idealists -- members of MHP-affiliated youth clubs -- were not part of the clashes. He said the Beyoğlu conflict initially stemmed from a disagreement between citizens of Roma and Kurdish origin.

Gür said: “We would never do anything that could leave this country in a difficult position. We also constantly warn our friends against such actions.” Meanwhile, in Doğubeyazıt, a district of the eastern province of Van, stores did not open yesterday due to a planned demonstration of the DTP. An area shopkeeper who asked to remain anonymous said: “The DTP has been telling us to keep our shutters closed for days. We had to shut down to avoid trouble.” A similar protest was held in the Çukurca district of Hakkari.

Calls for calm

The head of a Diyarbakır-based group called the Peace Commissions, Metin Özşanlı, called on protestors and others reacting to them to be calm. “It is easy to fight, but not that easy to make up. Please, everyone be calm and do not become pawns in a game set up by others.” He said as long as common sense prevails, Turkey would overcome any conflict.

Former Welfare Party (RP) Van deputy Fethullah Erbaş said some of the isolated incidents that occurred in the Kurdish-dominated provinces of the East and the Southeast should not be attributed to the entire region. “When such events occur in the west, people are afraid because the number of Kurds living in western cities is five times that of those in the East. The biggest responsibility here lies with political party leaders. Everyone should do their best to reign in their voters’ base. People should not pour on to the streets. Even when armed conflict was at its peak, we didn’t have Turkish-Kurdish clashes.”

The head of the Hakkari Chamber of Trade and Industry said there were attempts to divide the public into two camps. He said Turks and Kurds were inseparable, noting that political party leaders had to be responsible in these times.

DTP closure

The Constitutional Court on Friday unanimously decided to close the DTP, calling it a focus of separatist activities. The court also decided to ban 37 DTP politicians, including DTP chairman Türk and deputy Aysel Tuğluk, from engaging in politics.

The DTP had 21 seats in Parliament. Forming a parliamentary party in Parliament requires at least 20 deputies. The ban on the two DTP deputies will make it difficult for the rest of the deputies, who are now independent, to form a new group.