So, here we go again. It was back in November 2022 when screaming headlines last told of a terrorist attack that had shaken Turkey, a country that has been living under the spectre of terror for decades.

Even as bloodied survivors and rescue workers removed dust and debris, the Erdogan regime propagandised that the perpetrator was the Kurdish separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

In December 2022, bne IntelliNews noted: “The woman [that left the bomb in a bag] is not a Kurd and there are no Kurds among the dozens of suspects who were allegedly operating around her and who are under arrest or detention.”

“At the cost of contributing to the ocean of mis-, dis- and mal-information, it could be noted that the woman detained as the alleged bomber and the people supposedly operating around her have arrived in Turkey from regions in northern Syria that are currently held by Turkey-backed jihadist groups,” this publication added.

In April this year, the court handed down sentences to the convicted accused. No one received a sentence for being a member of a terrorist organisation.

The little-remarked-upon daily armed violence in Turkey, meanwhile, goes on undeterred. The Turkish defence ministry provides day-by-day developments as regards ongoing operations against the PKK in the press release section of its website.

There are casualties almost every day, but they do not make the news unless they are related to something as visible as a city being targeted by a terrorist cell.

October 23

October 23, 2024 will go down in the annals as another day in the country’s bloody history. Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS), a government-run drone maker, was targeted in the capital Ankara.

Defence minister Yasar Guler pointed the finger at “PKK scoundrels”. On October 24, interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said the state had confirmed that both terrorists were PKK members.

And this time, the perpetrators really looked like PKK members.

Screenshot: Into the bloody annals you go.

The PKK, though, has been acting as if it has no idea about what's going on. Its news service ANF has been relaying the story based on Turkish sources.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the TUSAS attack.

So, what actually is going on?

Let’s roll back the tape a little. Not as far as the Big Bang (though one might think the Big Bang has to at least partly take the rap for the carnage that is all too often the human race). Let’s stop at Turkey’s March 31, 2024, local elections and move forward from there.

In May, bne IntelliNews noted: “Although, so far, there are not enough significant developments to say it will make any difference, the gangs that make up the Erdogan regime are currently clashing.”

“From time to time, this publication reports that the gangs are ‘jostling’. At the moment, things are beyond ordinary jostling activities.

“[President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s gangs are attacking his junior coalition partner Devlet Bahceli’s gangs. Some police have been arrested and some scandalising trials are being held.”

This publication also added: “[The new chair of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Ozgur] Ozel will be [Erdogan’s] new boy as he sets about ‘softening the political atmosphere in the country’.

“With constitutional amendments, Erdogan wants to scrap the ‘50% plus one vote’ rule to declare a victory in the first round of the presidential election.

“If he can achieve this, he will switch to a one-round-only, first-past-the-post system, and he will be able to get rid of Bahceli.”

Bahceli, master of the game

In July, this publication quoted Alican Uludag, a journalist who had been closely following the trials in question, as writing: “The trial over the murder of the ex-head of the MHP’s youth wing, Sinan Ates, [is] progressing as the MHP wished.”

“In other words, the MHP is ensuring Erdogan does what it wants in the Sinan Ates case, it is rescuing its men from the court. The government is also doing whatever is demanded for now to avoid a collapse in the People’s Alliance [between Erdogan’s ruling party AKP and the coalition partner MHP],” Uludag added.

Kurdish peace?

Bahceli has once again very professionally nullified Erdogan’s attempts to be done with him. There are rumoured mutterings from the corridors of power: “Erdogan wants to normalise with the Kurds as well, just as he did with Ozel… But what will he do with Bahceli?... Hmm…”

Since 2009, Erdogan and his henchmen have abused the so-called Kurdish peace issue to such an inordinate extent that even the most foolish pacifist in the country now gets irritated when the regime circulates that it is looking to revive the process to end the four-decade-old conflict.

Yet if the Erdogan regime was genuinely planning to bring the PKK into the fold, concerns over the reaction of the nationalist Bahceli had apparently become unnecessary since he had already okayed a coalition with the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan prior to the rerun local election in Istanbul in 2019.

Bahceli, you see, is a flexible character. The big difficulty here though, is that Erdogan wants to once and for all get rid of the yoke Bahceli has on his neck.

Bahceli takes the stage

On October 1, at the opening of the new parliamentary term following the summer break, Bahceli shook hands with members of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party (formerly the HDP).

Shaking hands at the parliament may not sound like a sensational development. But Bahceli had just over a month previously, on August 21, called for the salaries of DEM’s MPs to be cut, with the saved money to be given to the families of “martyrs”.

Also on October 1, he inferred that Turkish politics was entering a new phase and his handshakes were not just a coincidence.

Bahceli in or out?

On October 10, Amberin Zaman (@amberinzaman), who has good sources among the Kurds and in the US, wrote that Turkish officials (intelligence? It was not specified) met with the long imprisoned Ocalan and that the PKK leader communicated with “Qandil”, the redoubt in the northern Iraqi mountains where the PKK command resides.

Was Bahceli bypassed in this or was his handshake move coordinated with Erdogan?

On October 12, Erdogan told reporters who accompanied him on his plane as returned from a visit abroad: “There may be those who have not expected this move from Bahceli. However, we don’t see such a move from a senior politician as strange.”

Is there some indication there that he did not know that Bahceli would take such a step? That it wasn’t a move planned by the regime?

Frivolity

On October 15, while addressing his parliamentary group, Bahceli called on “the leader of the terrorists”, namely Ocalan, to announce that the PKK had laid down its guns.

He was obviously vulgarising the issue.

However, Ilhami Isik (@dunya20101) said on October 16 in an interview that this was just a case of Bahceli’s rhetoric and that the MHP leader was actually opening the way to ending Ocalan’s isolation.

Isik is known as the “Balikci/Fisherman”. He served as a courier going between the Turkish state and the PKK during the 2009-2010 talks. He is dubbed the “fisherman” as it was said that he met the various figures involved at a fish restaurant.

Only the Iyi (Good) Party, who have lost a lot of ground with the electorate, and Umit Ozdag, head of the Zafer (Victory) Party (a small party that attracted 1-2% of votes in the last elections and that aims to ride the anti-immigrant sentiment), would move to abuse the new peace process, Isik added.

When asked whether Bahceli was just being Bahceli in making some nonsensical noise to divert from the nation’s agenda, an agenda that is heavy with economic ills and violence, Isik replied that no one would think of doing this with such a sensitive issue (that could end in a bloodbath within a moment).

Vulgarisation

On October 22, in his next parliamentary group address, Bahceli urged Ocalan to come to the parliament and address the parliamentary group of the DEM Party. He also called on Ocalan to bypass Qandil.

Good lord. 

First of all, why are you exaggerating matters and provoking a reaction from the anti-Kurdish millions?

If ready for any role in a peace process, Ocalan would simply release a short statement to say so. That’s all. Why are you vulgarising matters if you are serious about an effort for peace?

Secondly, why are you provoking a reaction from Qandil?

Tweet (@MHP_Bilgi): How to vulgarise a process. The head of the Iyi Party, as anticipated by Ilhami Isik, threw a rope to Bahceli for the hanging of Ocalan from a gallows. Bahceli posed with the rope.

Tweet: There is nothing more comfortable than ignorance in this world.

Let’s talk some peace

On October 23, the stage for peace talks was set.

Screenshots: Let’s talk some peace.

Screenshots: Relaxed and comfortable Turks can talk about peace all day long.

Tweet: Even five year-old kids in Turkey know “whenever a step is taken towards social reconciliation in the country, dark hands step in and stage a bloody game to disrupt the atmosphere of peace”. But not Bahceli it seems.

Tweet: Welcome to Turkey.

Tweets: Ocalan’s nephew was allowed to visit his uncle, who until then endured five years of isolation. And, on the same day, a terror attack was staged in the Turkish capital. Yes, you got that right, that’s the Middle East. Hardcore.

Screenshots: Erdogan was also caught out badly. One day, he is ending terror. The next day, he is fighting terror.

A fool, namely Ozgur Ozel, was, meanwhile, travelling around the Kurdish-populated southeast Anatolian region.

Tweet, Selahattin Demirtas (@hdpdemirtas): Does this message from the former Kurdish presidential candidate mean that Qandil carried out the attack?: “The mentality that tries to bloodily cut off the search for solutions to our problems through talk, dialogue and politics should know that if Ocalan takes the initiative and wants to pave the way for politics, we will be behind him with all our might.”

Tweet: The witch who is fooling everyone. One day, he is inviting Ocalan to parliament. The very next day, he's meeting with one of his mafia bosses.