NEWS

Mourners in protest

ANKARA – Thousands of mourners crammed into the courtyard of a mosque in the Turkish capital and surrounding streets for the funeral of a soldier killed by a roadside bomb, jeering at cabinet ministers and accusing the government of being soft on Kurdish rebels. Government officials said the memorial this month was hijacked by the opposition, and was a thinly disguised campaign rally ahead of general elections on July 22 that were called following a political battle between the Islamic-rooted government and the military-backed secular establishment. But the growing conflict with separatist rebels in the predominantly Kurdish southeast threatens to overshadow voting. The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is considering whether to stage an incursion into Iraq to pursue rebels who have bases there amid escalating violence between the military and rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Authorities blame the PKK for recent bomb attacks in the cities of Ankara, Izmir and Diyarbakir. The mourners, echoing sentiment at similar military funerals in past weeks, went so far as to accuse the government of being in cahoots with the rebels. «Murderer PKK, collaborator AKP!» they shouted. AKP is the Turkish acronym of the ruling Justice and Development Party. «To turn our mosques into political arenas, to exploit the funerals of martyrs politically, is to harm our national and spiritual values,» Erdogan said later. «This is not the place for political electioneering.» Erdogan’s rivals accuse him of failing to press the USA and Iraq to crack down on Iraq-based rebels and of not authorizing a military cross-border operation to chase rebels there. Two prominent secular parties have made the fight against terrorism a priority in manifestos revealed last week, amid a public outcry for action. Turkey’s secularist military leaders, whose ties with Erdogan are tense because of his Islamist past, appear to be reinforcing a perception of the government as soft on terrorism. General Yasar Buyukanit, the military chief, has said the armed forces were prepared for a foray into Iraq but were waiting for a go-ahead from Erdogan. He also called for mass protests against PKK violence. Erdogan said the country needs to focus on rebels inside Turkey and an incursion into Iraq must be the last option. The USA, which has its hands full fighting an insurgency in Iraq, wants to avoid new conflict in one of Iraq’s most stable areas. A recent opinion poll of 3,605 people, conducted by the private Konda polling agency, showed Erdogan’s AKP gaining 45 percent of the vote next month, with two other parties – the secular Republican People’s Party and the far-right Nationalist Action Party – entering parliament with 20 and 16 percent respectively. No margin of error was given. Under Turkey’s legislative system, that result would give the AKP a slimmed-down 307-seat majority in the 550-member parliament, according to the poll. The ruling party currently commands 351 seats. Many believe a military success against the PKK in the coming weeks would improve the AKP’s showing. About 70 civilians, police, troops and guards were killed by PKK violence this year, according to the government. Despite the AKP’s apparent vulnerability on the rebel issue, the economy is the bedrock of its platform. «If voters look at past achievements, they will go for the AKP, which has presided over a strong and stable economy even though this has not improved the ordinary man’s situation,» said Omer Faruk Genckaya, a political science lecturer at Ankara’s Bilkent University. The political crisis sparked by the debate over secularism could work in the AKP’s favor, making it look like it was being victimized by the secular elite, analysts say. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, Erdogan’s ally, was forced to withdraw his presidential bid last month after the opposition blocked the parliamentary balloting process to prevent a so-called «Islamist» taking over the post. Secular Turks staged protests against the AKP’s candidate in Turkish cities and the military threatened to intervene.

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