Turkey begins new campaign against PKK

[Nakura Chambers]

Turkey’s warplanes and artillery repeatedly bombed camps of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in the country’s southeast late on Monday, marking the military’s first significant offensive against the PKK since peace talks began two years ago.

The move poses a new threat to negotiations between the government and the Kurdish militant group, which have become increasingly strained in recent weeks in the face of Turkey’s refusal to help rout jihadist militants across its border in Syria, where Kurds face the risk of a massacre by Islamic State.

Monday’s attacks in Hakkari province, on Turkey’s borders with Iran and Iraq, came after repeated PKK harassment of military outposts in recent days, according to Turkey’s privately owned Dogan news agency.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/articles/turki...key-1413296160

Turkey has been reluctant to fight against ISIS, but has engaged in an aerial campaign against the Kurdistan Workers' Party. While the North Atlantic Treaty Organization supports Kurdish self-determination, they oppose this particular group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). I should note that while most Kurdish groups support attaining independence through peaceful and democratic means, the PKK is primarily a militant/terrorist organization. The PKK has been fighting a guerrilla war against Turkey since 1984. What are your thoughts on this renewed conflict?