Campaigns Based on Security Fears

Particularly the ruling AKP and the nationalist MHP are using increasing nationalism and anger over the continuing deaths of soldiers in battles with the PKK to score points. The main parties are unanimous in their support for cross-border operations.

İstanbul

Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Gül, whose bid for presidency was thwarted by the boycotting of the election by the opposition party, has said that in order to protect the country, his party had not made a great issue out of the boycott.

Speaking at a rally in Ankara, he pointed to the decrease in inflation during his party's time in office and said "this is real nationalism".

Cross-border operations

In a discussion programme he joined in the evening of 4 July on Channel 24, Abdullah Gül commented on the controversial plans for cross-border operations into Northern Iraq, saying that "if the soldiers say we need to enter Northern Iraq tomorrow, we will enter".

He added: "We have no interest in Iraq territory. Our aim is to disable a terrorist organization [the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK)]. In order to do that, we will do whatever is necessary."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan referred to an agreement between Turkey and the USA, signed on 22 September 2003 and concerning the economic support of Turkey, as well as US operations in Iraq. According to Erdogan, Turkey did not commit to abstaining from unilateral action in Northern Iraq as a precondition for a financial grant.

Gül's and Erdogan's comments are an indication of the increasing support that a military operation in Northern Iraq has in Turkey. The Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) has a base in the Kandil Mountain range, more than sixty kilometres away from the border.

Party mud-slinging

In recent political discourses there has been no mention of political solutions to the "Kurdish issue". Rather, the sole focus has become the battles between the army and the PKK, in which soldiers are dying almost daily.

The increase in anti-PKK rhetoric is also continuing in the mud-slinging between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Recep Tayyip Erdogan (AKP) has begun targeting the MHP in his rally speeches and had taunted the MHP: "Why did you not hang Abdullah Öcalan?", referring to the MHP's time in government. After PKK leader Öcalan's capture, the then coalition government abolished the death penalty in line with European Union accession conditions. Salih Kapusuz of the AKP has also revived the term "baby murderer" for Abdullah Öcalan, thus heating up emotions even more.

The MHP in turn has vowed to publish the signature of all AKP members of parliament who signed the bill to abolish the death penalty. (NZ/AG)