Turkey’s Wars: Quelling Kurdish Uprisings, and Suffering From Terror Attacks
Government tanks rolled in last year to crush a Kurdish uprising here
and in several other places, leaving little behind — some of these city centers are practically ghost towns, and the Kurds who still live here seem haunted, too.
"This place is very dangerous."
He rolled up his sleeve to show the scar he carries after one attack here by the P.K.K., the Kurdish separatist group
that encouraged last year’s uprisings in this region and is widely listed as a terrorist organization.
One big attack in particular — when an ISIS gunman killed 39 people early New Year’s Day at Reina, a
noted Istanbul nightclub — seemed to strike right at the city’s reputation as a hub for night life.
The mayor here was recently arrested and replaced by a state "trustee," one of more
than 80 elected Kurds who have recently been replaced by government edict.
"We’re just waiting." Turkey is suffering from two different terrorism campaigns: one led by the Islamic State, and the other by Kurdish separatists.
But their new landlord later needed their apartment for his own displaced family, so they moved to this village. Fearing
that both the security forces and Kurdish militants might harass them if the family were identified, they asked me not to use their names.
By PATRICK KINGSLEY In Kurdish areas of Turkey, fear
and destruction have returned as facts of life after government offensives leveled parts of rebellious cities.