Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK and Economic Policy Research Foundation Ankara

Nihat Ali Ozcan: Authorities accuse the group of having ties with militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which killed 13 policemen in a roadside bombing earlier on 8 September near the country eastern border with Iran, according to Business Week. Another policeman and 16 soldiers have also been killed since 6 September. The headquarters of the main Kurdish party in the capital, Ankara, was set on fire late on 8 September, according to local news agencies, and there were similar attacks in several other cities. If the government can’t exert control, spiraling violence could increase the risk of a civil war, said Nihat Ali Ozcan, who studies the Kurdish conflict at the Economic Policy Research Foundation in Ankara. The violence reflects a widening divide in the country since an election in June brought a pro-Kurdish party into parliament for the first time. The PKK is increasingly shifting attacks to urban areas and targeting policemen to inflict greater damage on security forces. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.