Vulnerable to the Kurds, ISIS, and Refugees

The recent wave of violence in Turkey can be grouped into three categories. The first is the operations led by Turkish security forces in parts of eastern and southeastern Turkey to clear neighborhoods of their PKK (The Kurdistan Worker’s Party) presence. This strategy emerged as a response to the second type of violence initiated by unilateral declarations of autonomy by PKK affiliates and their attempts to deny Turkish security forces access to these neighborhoods (by moats, barricades, booby traps etc.)—a decision which erupted after increasing hostilities between the PKK and Ankara subsequent to the Turkish general elections in June 2015.

The hostilities have resulted in a considerable number of internally displaced persons, some of whom eventually find the opportunity to return home, as the clashes usually last no more than a few weeks, but they find their former property in ruins. It can also be argued that the conflict is both inciting a feeling of rupture among the local Kurdish population, especially the youth, and diminishing the prospects for peace. Furthermore, the conflict has reached the capital in the form of high casualty suicide attacks conducted by an alleged offshoot of the PKK.