Headlines:
- Clashes, Militant Bombing Kill Nine in Southeast Turkey
- In Shadow of Erdogan, Turkey’s AKP Re-elects Davutoglu Leader
- Kerry Calls Turkish FM for Talks on Terror, Region
Clashes, Militant Bombing Kill Nine in Southeast Turkey
Kurdish militants killed two police officers in a car bomb attack on a checkpoint in southeast Turkey on Sunday, as authorities imposed a curfew in the region’s largest city Diyarbakir where clashes broke out, security sources said.
Turkish forces backed up by helicopters and commandos shelled a mountainous area where the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters had fled after the checkpoint attack in Sirnak province, killing six of them, the sources added.
A police officer was reported killed in another confrontation.
President Tayyip Erdogan has promised the fight will go on until “not one terrorist is left”. The conflict has flared up as Turkey prepares for a snap parliamentary election on Nov. 1 after a June vote was inconclusive.
The PKK also launched an attack on Sunday with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles in the Silvan district of Diyarbakir province, killing one police officer and wounding another, one security source told Reuters. Locals officials said they also declared a curfew in that area.
State-run Anadolu Agency reported Culture and Tourism Minister Yalcin Topcu as saying the recent security forces’ operations had hit the PKK hard.
“A significant portion of the mountain forces has been destroyed. Their structures in the cities are being ripped out and cast aside,” he said. [Source: Reuters]
One of the secular, democratic, capitalist Republic of Turkey’s bigger problem is the Kurdish issue. It costed more than 40,000 lives, and deaths are still increasing. Underlying causes of this conflict are western–based ideas like nationalism. For centuries Turkish and Kurdish people used to live fraternally in peace. This issue can never be solved until the expulsion of foreign states domination over our rulers and reestablishment of the Khilafah. Thanks to this Islamic brotherhood based system the Ummah will reunite as one as it was throughout the past fourteen centuries.
In Shadow of Erdogan, Turkey’s AKP Re-elects Davutoglu Leader
Turkey’s ruling AK Party re-elected Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as its chairman at a congress on Saturday where the longest shadow was cast by a politician who, officially at least, is no longer a member: President Tayyip Erdogan.
Although Erdogan did not appear in person – as president he is supposed to refrain from party politics – many of his loyalists were named to executive committees, something Davutoglu had hoped to avoid, according to some party officials.
Party officials say that among differences within the ranks there is argument over Davutoglu’s efforts to form a coalition after the AKP lost its absolute majority at a June election. Erdogan himself is not a leader easily given to compromise and is accused by critics of growing authoritarianism.
As the congress began in a packed and sweltering arena in Ankara on Saturday, signs of Erdogan’s popularity were everywhere, with some attendees wearing headbands and red scarves emblazoned with his image.
A video showed him addressing huge crowds at rallies, meeting with world leaders, such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister David Cameron, and inspecting building sites in an orange hard hat. That was followed, later, by a similar video featuring Davutoglu.
Though nominally above party politics, party officials say Erdogan still exerts enormous influence over the AKP and will make this felt as members of the party’s powerful committees are chosen.
One senior AKP official said this would annoy some factions, but that there was little they could do about it. “Nobody can risk a massive breakup, and everyone is aware of this sensitivity,” the official said.
Suleyman Ozeren of the Global Strategic Research Centre agreed that feathers would be ruffled, “but it must also be accepted that the one who controls the party is President Erdogan”. [Source: Reuters]
Movements based on personal leadership are doomed to break up. Only parties based on ideological thoughts can survive and succeed truly. An Islamic movement has to be based on an ideological Islamic Aqeedah. Any other bases are unacceptable and means only distraction for the Ummah, which serves to the advantage of its enemies.
Kerry Calls Turkish FM for Talks on Terror, Region
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu, have discussed bilateral and regional affairs during a telephone conversation.
The conversation took place upon Kerry’s request, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported late on Sept. 12, citing diplomatic sources. The two discussed bilateral relations, the fight against terrorism and regional developments, with the Syrian conflict being in first place, the same sources said, without elaborating.
Kerry, meanwhile, congratulated Sinirlioglu over his new post. Sinirlioglu was appointed foreign minister in late August as part of the interim government led by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, which will take the country to early elections scheduled for Nov. 1. Sinirlioglu had served as the undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry since 2009 before the appointment. [Source: Hurriyet Daily News]
Feridun Sinirlioglu’s first contact with his American counterpart has been performed. Feridun Sinirlioglu has been chosen as foreign minister of the interim government probably because of his good relations with the Jewish entity. Sinirlioglu has developed his relations while he served as the Ambassador to Tel Aviv.