Is Turkey On The Path To Restoring The Ottoman Empire? | Zero Hedge

Is Turkey On The Path To Restoring The Ottoman Empire? | Zero Hedge

Over the past two days, we’ve documented the escalating violence in Turkey, tracing the roots of Ankara’s newfound zeal for combating Islamic State to a long-running conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party and, more specifically, to an electoral setback for AKP.

In short, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s push to consolidate his power by transforming the country into a presidential republic was derailed last month when, for the first time in more than a decade, AKP lost its absolute majority in parliament thanks to the pro-Kurdish HDP which won 13% of the vote.  

The coalition building process has been predictably rocky, prompting Erdogan to threaten new elections in the event politicians can't "sort it out." Needing just two percentage points to regain its majority and clear the way for Erdogan’s power grab, Ankara has moved to stoke a nationalistic fervor by reigniting the conflict with PKK and drawing explicit links between the "terrorist" group and HDP politicians. Case in point (from AFP): 

Turkish prosecutors on Thursday opened a probe against the leader of Turkey's main Kurdish party over bloody October 2014 protests, the official Anatolia news agency reported.

Prosecutors in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir have started an investigation against Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) leader Selahattin Demirtas for inciting people to take up arms during the protests that left dozens dead, the agency said.

If the case comes to court, he could face up to 24 years in jail, it added.

The investigation comes as Turkey presses on with a military campaign against the Kurdish militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.

Should the investigation conclude that Demirtas should be charged, prosecutors will ask that his parliamentary immunity be removed, the report said.

Of course it helps to have a cover for a brutal crackdown on one’s political foes, especially when the result will likely amount to the nullification of a democratic election outcome, which is why the ISIS-inspired suicide bombing in Suruc on July 20 looks rather convenient, as it prompted an angry and, more importantly, a predictable response from the PKK which allowed Erdogan to go straight to the US and then to NATO with a claim that in addition to launching airstrikes against ISIS, Turkey would need to hit the PKK as well. After all, they’re both officially labeled as "terrorist" organizations. 

Cont....