The attack by suspected PKK members at the heart of Turkey's most advanced defense industry has come as a real shock to Ankara, a strike that seeks to torpedo the opening that has been methodically built by Recep Tayyip Erdogan towards the Kurds and at the same time shows the serious security gaps in the country despite multi-year and by all means effort to dismantle terrorism.
TUSAS is Turkey's largest aeronautical company that produces training aircraft, fighters and civil helicopters and has the development program of the first Turkish-made fighter, the KAAN. The company essentially belongs to the Turkish Armed Forces, has 10.000 employees and has absorbed billions of dollars from the state budget over the last two decades as it is the spearhead of the "miracle" of the Turkish military industry which is also the "pride" of T. Erdogan.
The Turkish Ministry of Defense announced after midnight that "thirty-two targets", positions of the PKK and its allies, were bombed in northern Iraq and on the territory of Syria, a few hours after the attack in Ankara which claimed the lives of five people and was attributed to Kurdish separatist armed movement from the Turkish authorities. "As permitted by our right to self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, an air operation was conducted against terrorist targets in northern Iraq and Syria (…) and a total of 32 terrorist targets were successfully destroyed," the statement said. ministry in the press release it released, clarifying that "airline operations continue".
The scenarios for the motives of the attack
At this time, no one can answer with certainty the question of whether the attack was carried out by PKK cells that are still active inside Turkey and feel threatened by an opening to their historic leader Abdullah Ocalan, whose mental health there have been many reports after and 25 years in prison many of them in complete isolation. But there is also the possibility that far-left armed organizations carried out the attack with the aim of undermining the so-called "democratic" overtures of the Erdogan government. And of course the "mind" of the decision-makers in Ankara also goes to the foreign centers, whether they are at the core of the Gülenists or other countries in the region that would like a highly symbolic destabilization move.
At the same time, yesterday's attack shows that Turkey is far from free from terrorism.
After the last elections, T. Erdogan had no choice but to attempt an opening to the Kurds who could be a gold reserve for the two alternative plans he has so that he can remain in power after this term of. Either by announcing early elections or by changing the constitution, both of which require the support of the Kurdish DEM party. Of the party that came from the other Kurdish party HDP whose leader Demirtas is still in prison.
But T. Erdoğan wants to end the PKK so that he can prevent negative developments in the event of the withdrawal of the Americans from Northern Syria and prevent the possibility of maintaining an autonomous Kurdish entity in the region controlled by the PKK which will de facto affect the neighboring Turkish provinces inhabited by Kurds and will be a constant threat to Ankara.
The "game" with the Kurds was undertaken by the most unlikely person for this mission, N. Bakhtseli's government partner, the leader of the far-right and nationalist MIR party. It was Mr. Bakhtseli who on October 1 at the start of the work of the National Assembly, surprising everyone, approached the seats of the DEM deputies whom he greeted and wished for the new parliamentary term. Just last Tuesday, N. Bahtceli leaving even his close associates "close" said that if the imprisoned PKK leader Öcalan renounces armed action, then he can be given the floor of the National Assembly to address the appeal of and will be released.
It is obvious that N. Bahtceli did not touch on a topic that is a "taboo" not only for nationalists but for the entire political system of Turkey for which A. Ocalan is the great enemy of the Turkish Republic and the leader of an armed struggle that has cost thousands of lives of Turkish soldiers and civilians.
T. Erdoğan supported the initiative of his government partner, thus confirming that there was a concerted move for a new approach to DEM and Ocalan who remains in isolation for almost 4 years.
The DEM was quick to condemn the attack and noting that the timing is not coincidental added that "we must now embrace peace more than ever to ensure that such painful events do not happen again." But Demirtas also warned in a post that "no one will be allowed to suppress the voices of those who want peace" and supporting the nascent peace process he stated that if Ocalan takes the initiative and wants to open the way for politics, we will be with him with all our strength."
In the past, in 2014, T. Erdogan had started the "peace process" with the PKK, while in 2009 he had also proposed amnesty for all PKK members, plans that were not completed either because there were bomb attacks, or because there was a strong reaction from the opposition and primarily from the current "peacemaker" N. Bakhtseli.
After 2016 and the coup attempt, the wave of prosecutions and the imposition of a police state in order to deal with the F. Gülen movement effectively prevented openings towards the Kurds.
And as recently as early 2024, there were reports that the DEM had attempted to reach an agreement with the Erdogan government by promising that its voters would not vote for opposition mayoral candidates in major cities if the government did not remove the mayors who would was electing the DEM in the Kurdish provinces. This agreement did not go ahead and after the elections several Kurdish mayors defected.
After yesterday's attack, however, Erdogan may be given the opportunity to turn the disadvantage into an advantage and attempt, under the threat of the return of terrorism, to speed up the process of rapprochement with Ocalan with the aim of declaring the end of the armed struggle and laying down his weapons PKK. But the question is whether yesterday's strike is a last-ditch reaction of small cores opposed to such an agreement, or whether it expresses the large mass of current members and supporters of the Kurdish armed movement.
Source: protothema.gr
