To stop damaging hostilities

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is declaring an all-out war on the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), believing that peace talks with them are fruitless.

In a speech to a select group of lawyers in Ankara, Tuesday, the Turkish leader declared that there is “nothing to discuss with the terrorists”, meaning PKK.

A day earlier, Erdogan ruled out any peace talks with the militant Kurdish faction fighting for self rule in the southeastern part of Turkey, where the Kurdish minority lives.

Erdogan went on to say that “terrorists can choose two paths: surrender to justice or be neutralised”.

Talking about supporters or sympathisers of the Kurdish nationalist armed struggle, the Turkish president called them “wolves in sheep’s clothing”.

An additional measure Ankara is considering against PKK and its supporters is to strip them of the Turkish nationality.

“Supporters who pose as academics, spies who identify themselves as journalists, activists disguised as a politicians, are no different from those who throw bombs,” Erdogan said.

The Turkish president excluded all forms of contact or negotiations with PKK.

But such a position is a non-starter.

While understanding Ankara’s position on the PKK and the unequivocal rejection of its terrorist attacks, its just-declared stance may very well be a prescription for continued, prolonged, warfare.

Soon the tourism season starts in Turkey, and millions of foreign tourists are expected to visit the beautiful Turkish sites and beaches of the Aegean or Mediterranean seas.

Any eruption of or full-scale fighting will kill the tourist industry.

Hope that hostilities will end must be kept alive if Turkey wishes to reap the benefits.

The fight against PKK’s terrorism must be accompanied by the extension of an olive branch that will help restore the ceasefire the Kurdish group and the government used to observe. 

The enmity already took a heavy toll, especially on human life. About 40,000 people were killed and many more were injured.

Turkey’s conflict with PKK is a domestic issue, certainly, but there should be room for international mediation to end the hostility.

Global diplomacy could help spare Turkey endless killings and a fight that will have no winner, only losers.