Kurdish–Turkish conflict

Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel, who is set to depart from his post, began farewell visits July 30, starting with Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu. 

An ambush organized by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has claimed the lives of three Turkish soldiers, the country's armed forces say.

PKK members opened fire on the ??rnak Görmeç Gendarmerie Battalion. The gendarmeries responded and an armed clash followed, Today's Zaman reports.

Five people died July 30 in new attacks on the Turkish security forces blamed on Kurdish militants, as Ankara stepped up its controversial campaign against the PKK militants.

A total of 190 militants have reportedly been killed in two major airstrikes by the Turkish military targeting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) bases both inside Turkey and northern Iraq, intelligence sources told daily Hürriyet, before 30 F-16s reportedly bombed PKK camps on July 30.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Iraqi Kurdish President Massud Barzani have agreed that Turkey must continue the Kurdish peace process despite escalating violence, Berlin said July 29.

A Turkish police officer and a civilian were killed in a gun attack in the country's southeastern Diyarbak?r province early July 30.

?I like democracy when democracy likes me,? a veteran Turkish journalist used to say mockingly, criticizing Turkish political figures for twisting democratic concepts as it suits them.

This is very reminiscent of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an?s current approach.

He is crystal clear about it.

Turkey is moving backwards again with regards to its Kurdish problem. President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an is twanging nationalist chords and saying it is not possible to go on with the Kurdish peace process. He is also stoking sentiments against the pro-Kurdish Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP), which got 13 percent of the vote in the June 7 elections.

Twelve Iraqis have been detained in Turkey's southern province of Hatay while attempting to illegally cross the Turkish-Syrian border in the wake of violent attacks near and on the border in recent weeks.

Turkey has been facing a "conscious, malicious and planned" escalation of terrorist attacks since the June 7 election, Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has said, adding that the country would respond to each incident of terrorism.