Kurdish separatism in Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu said late July 7 that the Kurdish peace process could continue "if promises given in 2013 are fulfilled," speaking at an iftar fast-breaking dinner in the eastern province of Van on July 7.

An Istanbul court has ruled for the continuation of a 21-year-long detainment of a 42-year-old man, who has been standing trial for an anti-terror case since 1994. 

Police disarmed a man, suspected of being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), carrying 14 kilograms of explosives and a firearm near a shopping center in the western city of Izmir on June 1.

The retrial of a former lawmaker who was convicted of being a member of a terrorist organization in 2012 started on June 24 in Istanbul.

Sebahat Tuncel, a former deputy of the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), attended the hearing at Istanbul's 10th High Penal Court as a defendant with her 10 lawyers on June 25.

Violence that erupted in Turkey?s southeast before and after the recent election has raised fears of a return to widespread clashes between affiliates of the Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) and Hizbullah, an outlawed Kurdish Islamist militant group. 

?Understanding Turkey?s Kurdish Question? edited by Fevzi Bilgin and Ali Sar?han (Lexington Books, 266 pages, $40)

As the dynamics of the new government are still in flux, the future of Turkey?s Kurdish issue is also unclear. With the lands across Turkey's southern borders engulfed by turmoil, the question appears to be entering a new, uncertain phase.

Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK), is the appropriate person to call on militants of his organization to lay down arms, Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirta? has said, urging for the resumption of talks in the stalled peace process. 

Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has said it was open to all options for a coalition government other than with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and that President Tayyip Erdo?an should remain within his constitutional limits.

At least two people were killed in an armed assault and clashes afterwards in the southeastern province of Diyarbak?r on June 9, according to the governor, as a local prosecutor announced that the death toll was at three.

Deputy Prime Minister Yalç?n Akdo?an has continued to slam the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), accusing it of being "intolerant and closed to criticism."

"'Shut up. Don't talk' is the favorite discourse of some HDP people," Akdo?an said on his Twitter account on June 9.