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In a conversation in Iraqi Kurdistan, Bese Hozat repeatedly decries Turkish 'fascism,' but Ankara notes it's facing a group considered a terror organization by the U.S. and EU as well

It was a calm and quiet dawn on the snowy peaks of Iraqs Qandil Mountains after several days of heavy airstrikes by Turkish fighter jets attacks that didnt even respect the dead. The guesthouse of the Kurdistan Workers Partys martyrs cemetery was left a mound of rubble, amid photographs and charred memories after the planes targeted a Kurdish rebel stronghold.

It was nothing unusual. Turkish airstrikes on this mountain range in northern Iraq have been a fixture since the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union set up bases here in the early 2000s after leaving Syria. The airstrikes are so regular that Kurdish militants and local civilians have gotten used to looking up at the sky.

Apart from the constant threat of an air raid, theres now the strong possibility of a Turkish ground operation against the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan.

There is such a possibility because an operation against Qandil has been on the agenda for a long time, said Bese Hozat, the co-chief of the Executive Council of the Kurdistan Communities Union, the umbrella group to which the PKK belongs.

Hozat was born in Turkeys Tunceli province in 1978 and joined the Kurdish guerrillas in the late 90s after losing several relatives in fighting against the Turkish army.

Hozat, who spoke to Haaretz in a wooded valley following an exhaustive security protocol, mentioned the AKP President Recep Tayyip Erdogans Justice and Development Party and the MHP, Turkeys far-right Nationalist Movement Party.

There is now a process for a constitutional referendum, and the AKP and MHP fascist groups want to conduct a cross-border operation in order to take the nationalist Turkish votes, Hozat said.

On Sunday, Turks will decide in a referendum whether to maintain the current parliamentary system or switch to an executive presidency, which both Erdogans party and the Nationalist Movement Party support.

While Erdogans government promises that a yes victory in the referendum will bring stability and the end of terrorism to Turkey, the PKK calls the plebiscite a trick to legalize and legitimize the dictatorship of the Islamist president.

The PKK and pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party have called on the Kurds to vote no, a position supported by the main opposition force, the Republican Peoples Party.

The AKP-MHP coalition wants to formalize a one-man dictatorship through this referendum, Hozat said. The Kurds will say no to this dictatorship regime.

Speaking to the local NTV and Star networks last week, Erdogan said the situation was worse in Iraqs Sinjar region, adding that the region was about to become the second Qandil for the PKK, referring to the PKKs stronghold in the Qandil Mountains.

There are around 2,500 PKK terrorists in the efforts to create this second Qandil, Erdogan said.

But as Hozar put it, Ankara has already invaded South Kurdistan [Iraqi Kurdistan], an invasion that has economic, politic and military aspects.

The PKK has always denounced political and military collaboration between Erdogan and Masoud Barzani, the head of Iraqi Kurdistan. We are ready to carry out a very strong defense against the invasive policies of the Turkish government, Hozat said.

Failed diplomacy

In July 2015, a month after the presidential election where Erdogan did not win an absolute majority, a two-year cease-fire between Ankara and the PKK collapsed after a bombing in the town of Suruc killed 32 people, mostly Kurdish activists. Since then thousands have died in the fighting.

According to the UN Human Rights Office, between July 2015 and December 2016, some 2,000 people were reportedly killed in the context of security operations in South-East Turkey.

Based on information received by the United Nations, this would include nearly 800 members of the security forces, and around 1,200 local people, of which an unspecified number may have been involved in violent or nonviolent actions against the state.

Hozat said the reconciliation process in Turkey failed because Abdullah Ocalans democratic proposals were rejected by the Turkish government, referring to the PKK leader now in a Turkish prison.

She said Turkey wanted the PKK to lay down its arms without giving the Kurds anything following a policy of elimination against the Kurdish freedom movement under the name of a solution. When the PKK rejected such an elimination project, fighting continued.

Hozat added: Against all these practices the PKK has been waging a legitimate self-defense armed struggle.

According to the Turkish government, the PKK had conducted a number of attacks that killed and wounded members of the Turkish security forces and other people.

According to Ankara, the Kurdish militants have also taken part in kidnappings, including of children; dug trenches and placed roadblocks in cities and towns; and blocked the provision of emergency health services.

The fascism of the AKP-MHP coalition is waging genocide against the Kurds, Hozat said. They have destroyed many Kurdish cities and killed a lot of Kurds.

According to a UN report, the number of displaced persons in southeastern Turkey is estimated at between 355,000 and 500,000 people, mainly Kurds. These people have reportedly moved to neighboring suburbs, towns and villages, or to other regions in Turkey.

In an attempt to change the demographic map of the Kurdish cities, they are evacuating the Kurdish people and they are replacing them with the families that have an ISIS mentality, Hozat said.

Political and womens rights

According to Turkeys Interior Ministry, 47,155 people remain in custody following massive sweeps by the authorities in the wake of the failed 2016 military coup.

Ankara has also arrested 13 Kurdish opposition politicians, including the co-leaders of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag. It has also taken over 82 councils controlled by the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party, according to Human Rights Watch.

Europe is responsible for the rise of fascism in Turkey because this silence and indifference are indirect support for Turkish policies, Hozat said.

Ankara accuses the PKK of using suicide attacks to kill civilians, but Hozat denies this. We have not committed any suicide attack against the Turkish cities, she said. Those attacks have been carried out by patriotic youth and people who reacted desperately against the practices of the AKP administration.

Meanwhile, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has made a raft of recommendations to Ankara to address gender inequality and remove obstacles for women and girls regarding education, employment, justice and reproductive health.

Some nongovernmental organizations have also claimed that womens rights are worsening in Turkey under Erdogan. With the rise of the AKP, male domination of culture and political life has increased sharply, Hozat said.

As the society grows more conservative, the level of crime against women increases. We can observe that in the high level of rape, harassment and also suicides. The AKP government is trying to form a fundamentalist and religious society based on enmity towards women.

Regarding the situation in Syria, Turkey said last week it had successfully ended its seven-month Euphrates Shield offensive in the north of the country. Turkey launched the campaign in August to push Islamic State militants away from its border and prevent the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units from gaining more ground in northern Syria.

Turkey has been pressing NATO and Russia to stop supporting the Kurds and to consider the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units a terrorist organization like the PKK.

Turkey is doing its politics and diplomacy based on enmity towards Rojava, Hozat said, referring to the de facto autonomous region in northern Syria. Ankara defines [the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units] as a terrorist organization, and they want this attitude adopted by the entire world.

She said the world knows that the Kurdish Peoples Protection Unions and the Womens Protection Units are very strong forces that are defending human values, but its always possible that some hypocrite and two-faced states may try to adopt the policies of Turkey against Rojava and the Kurds.

As Hozat put it, if those countries are sincerely against ISIS, they should give full support to the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units and Womens Protection Units and invite Kurds to the next peace talks.

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Kurd Leader to Haaretz: Erdogan and Allies Seek Dictatorship via Turkish Referendum - Haaretz

Putin And Erdogan: Addicted To Power Forbes This dichotomy defines two highly consequential leaders of our time: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, two men who not only have pasts and motivations with a great deal in common, but whose geopolitical ... and more »

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Putin And Erdogan: Addicted To Power - Forbes

The caliph's request was modest. He explained that on Fridays, he would like to wear a turban like the 15th century Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. He wanted to know whether the president had anything against it. The president, who had only been in office a few months, responded brusquely by telling the caliph that he should instead wear a frock coat, like a modern statesman. The president later declared that the caliphate was "nonsense."

The scene described by the Turkish historian Sukru Hanioglu in his biography of the first president of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal - later known as Ataturk - is typical of the determined and harsh manner in which he opposed the religious and political traditions of the recently-collapsed Ottoman Empire. Ataturk also adamantly made the case for the dismissal of the imam assigned to the Turkish national assembly. "Things like prayers are not needed here," was the president's explanation for the proposal. Hanioglu writes that for the founder of modern Turkey, there was basically one religion - a secular one, the religion of the republic.

The face of Ataturk, modern Turkey's founder, is on the country's currency to this day

Painful reforms

A great part of the population had reservations about the changes. The educated urban elite may have applauded Ataturk's reforms, but the traditional majority did not agree with him. The people did not like that the fact that one no longer swore by god in court but instead took an oath of honor. The Turkish justice system did away with all religious references within years and laicism was declared a basic principle of the Republic in 1937. People took offense to other reforms as well, like the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, the replacement of the fez with European hats, switching from the Arabic alphabet to the Latin alphabet, the introduction of Sunday as a new weekly holiday instead of Friday and the implementation of women's voting rights in 1934.

Ataturk, which means father of the Turks, went down in the history of the Turkish Republic as a modernizer - and he is still one of the most significant representatives of modernization even today, at least officially. But in truth, writes the historian Hanioglu, Ataturk and his comrades misjudged the reality of Turkish society. "The leadership of the early Republic criminally underestimated [] the powers of resistance of social networks in a Muslim society. Like many European intellectuals of the late 19th century and early 20th century, they were convinced - but in retrospect wrongly - of the idea that religion would soon be nothing more than a vague memory of the distant past."

Spanning the divide between traditional and modern Turkey, Istanbul's Hagia Sofia mosque is now a museum

The opponent

If the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pushes through the proposed new presidential system, then he is doing so with Ataturk in mind, suspects Caner Aver, a geographer from the Center for Studies on Turkey and Integration at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Aver believes that Erdogan wants to go down as the most important Turkish statesman in history after Ataturk. And there is something else that compels him: "He wants absolute power and he needs a constitutional change for this. This is the only way the existing presidential system can be secured constitutionally." It is fitting to him that Turkey will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2023, says Aver. "Then, Erdogan will be the great, strong man who has led Turkey out of the current domestic crisis - as well as the conflict with neighboring countries - and into the future." It remains to be seen, however, whether this will actually happen, adds Aver.

In order to obtain sufficient support for the planned presidential system, Erdogan is appealing the majority of the population that has opposed Ataturk's reforms for over a hundred years. This is also a reason why he resolutely pursues symbolic policies. He had a large mosque built on a hill above the Bosporus Strait. He hiked taxes on alcohol, banned its consumption near mosques and has made life difficult for bars and restaurants in European-dominated neighborhoods. He also lifted the headscarf ban in state institutions, such as universities, courts and parliament.

In the name of the Republic: Protesters in Istanbul hold up a flag bearing a portrait of Ataturk

A vote on cultural identity

Ideologically, according to Caner Aver, Erdogan comes from a nationalist, conservative and religious background. "So if he achieves his goals, we will encounter such elements more often in the state institutions." It is probably true that it is unlikely the country will actually become an Islamic republic, says Aver. "However, the nationalist, conservative and Islamic tone will be more strongly felt in institutions and possibly also in legislation, public life, the education system and in academic life."

Erdogan wants to reorganize Turkey politically. He is using cultural means to achieve this transformation. By doing so, he defines himself as an ideological counterforce to Ataturk. According to the historian Hanioglu, Turkey was culturally modern only on the surface. Erdogan is taking advantage of the sleeping conservative potential in the country. The vote on the presidential system is thus also a vote on the cultural identity of the country.

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Erdogan takes on Ataturk - Deutsche Welle

The Putinisation of Erdogan Middle East Eye At what point in the last 15 years of power did Recep Tayyip Erdogan decide that he alone held his country's destiny in his hands? When did he start comparing himself with Ataturk and pull up the drawbridge? Logic dictates that it was on that dramatic ...

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The Putinisation of Erdogan - Middle East Eye

By Daren Butler | DIYARBAKIR, Turkey

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey In rallies from the Kurdish southeast to the northern Black Sea coast, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has seemed to attempt the impossible: win over both nationalists and Kurds with threats to make spring a "black winter" for Kurdish militants.

In campaign speeches ahead of an April 16 referendum on increasing his powers, Erdogan has signaled that army operations to crush Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants could intensify and spread into Syria and Iraq in the months ahead.

"With God's permission, it will be spring for Turkey and the Turkish people and a black winter for terrorists," Erdogan told supporters on Monday in Trabzon, a heavily nationalist town on the Black Sea coast.

Such fighting talk plays well with nationalists who abhor the idea of renewed peace talks with the PKK, which first took up arms more than three decades ago and is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.

But it is a message he has also taken to the largely Kurdish southeast, courting those conservative Kurds who blame the militants for an upsurge in violence that the United Nations says has killed 2,000 people and displaced half a million since a ceasefire collapsed in July 2015.

"Could there be peace with those who walk around with weapons in their hands?" Erdogan said, addressing a crowd of several thousand waving Turkish flags amid tight security in the region's largest city Diyarbakir last Saturday.

"Nobody can divide our land. Those who try will find our armed forces, our police, our village guards up against them."

On the surface, life appears to have returned to normal in parts of Diyarbakir. But heavily armed security forces man checkpoints in some areas, and disillusionment and anger at both the state and the PKK run deep.

Bombed-out buildings and heaps of rubble are contained within the Roman-era walls of its ancient Sur district, devastated last year by tanks and artillery when security forces fought PKK militants who dug trenches and laid explosives.

"There is great pessimism across the region," said Yavuz Celik, 32, a local shopkeeper.

"There's always pressure. We're even scared of gathering in small groups ... During the peace process it was very different. We were even able to dance together in the street here."

POLITICIANS JAILED

Opinion polls suggest a tight race in the referendum, although the latest research this week suggests momentum is swinging in Erdogan's favor, putting support for the constitutional changes at around 53 percent.

Erdogan risked a nationalist backlash when he launched peace talks with the PKK in 2012, a move praised by European allies and seen as a step toward unlocking the economic potential of Turkey's southeast bordering Syria, Iran and Iraq.

There has been heavy fighting since the ceasefire broke down almost two years ago and Erdogan's pitch for support in the referendum has run into opposition from the pro-Kurdish opposition.

The pro-Kurdish HDP, the second largest opposition group in parliament, played a key role as a mediator in the peace process. But its leaders and thousands of its members, who oppose any greater powers for Erdogan in the referendum, have been jailed over the past year for alleged militant links.

HDP co-leader Selahattin Demirtas, who has called for a "no" vote in the referendum, issued a defiant statement from jail this week, calling on people to resist what he called the "tyranny" of a government creating "an atmosphere of fear".

"The closure of political channels unfortunately empowers those in the Kurdish movement who believe armed means are legitimate," said Diba Nigar Goksel, Turkey director for the International Crisis Group think tank.

"There is no durable military solution to Turkey's PKK conflict," she said. "Peace talks between Ankara and the PKK are the only way forward for a durable solution."

SYRIA AND IRAQ

Nationalists in Turkey have been incensed by the growing sway of Kurdish militia fighters in Syria and the presence of PKK leaders in northern Iraq, an issue which Erdogan suggested he would address in future military operations.

Turkey's conflict with the PKK has been fueled in recent years by events across the border in Syria, where the Kurdish YPG militia has enjoyed U.S. support in the fight against Islamic State, and in Iraq, where Ankara fears the militants are exploiting a security vacuum.

Erdogan described Turkey's "Euphrates Shield" operation, an incursion into northern Syrian to push back Islamic State and try to prevent YPG gains, as just a first phase and spoke of a "roadmap" for more operations both there and in Iraq.

"It is not an operation which only has a Syrian dimension. This matter has an Iraqi dimension too," he said in a television interview on Tuesday evening.

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Gulsen Solaker in Ankara; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Giles Elgood)

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt Families of victims of Sunday's bombing at Alexandria's Coptic cathedral gathered at the Monastery of Saint Mina under heavy security on Monday as Egypt's cabinet approved a three-month state of emergency ahead of a scheduled trip by Pope Francis.

LUCCA, Italy The United States will hold responsible anyone who commits crimes against humanity, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Monday, days after the U.S. military unexpectedly attacked Syria.

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Turkey's Erdogan courts nationalists, Kurds alike with hard ...