Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Turkey: A 'Kurdish spring'? ... Inside Story discusses whether the Kurdish issue is back to haunt Turkey once again. Turkey is continuing a massive military offensive against Kurdish militants. This follows what appeared to be a series of coordinated attacks against Turkish military positions in Hakkari province on the border with Iraq. At least 24 soldiers were killed in eight simultaneous assaults - the largest attack in years. The Turkish military has said in a statement that around 10,000 soldiers, backed by warplanes and helicopters, are taking part in an operation being conducted in both Turkey and northern Iraq. Recep Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, says this is an operation aimed at getting results, and at the same time is fending off opposition claims that the PKK action is a direct result of his government's policies. Is the Kurdish issue back to haunt Turkey once again? Is the PKK a tool used by other forces against Turkey's growing strength in the region? Can a solution be reached to the decades-old conflict between Tuerkey and the PKK? And how are the changes in the region impacting the PKK? Inside Story discusses with guests Yavuz Baydar, a columnist of Today's Zaman newspaper; Ibrahim Dogus, the director of the Halkevi Kurdish Centre; and Joshua Walker, a transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Source: Al Jazeera