Hürriyet Daily News published an article by Murat Yetkin headlined "The Kurdish issue and the local elections."
"Turkey’s chronic Kurdish problem could play an important role in the March 30 local elections in certain constituencies," the article begins.
"There is no surprise expected in the predominantly Kurdish-populated southeastern provinces of Turkey; the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which is focused on the Kurdish problem, is likely to win many mayoralties there," the author writes.
"In those provinces, Ankara’s main worry is the BDP’s already-announced plans to declare (what they call) “democratic autonomy” with flags and “self-defense units,” etc. That has actually long been the plan of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which shares the same grassroots as the BDP. Those scenarios were discussed in the National Security Board (MGK) meeting on Feb. 26, along with Syria, election security and the “threat” posed by Gülenists," the article reads.
"There is another dimension to the post-March 30 situation regarding the Kurdish issue. If Erdoğan has to ask for a military intervention in an extreme possible case of a declaration of “autonomy,” the military would not volunteer unless there are written orders within the framework of the law. It’s not just the whole Ergenekon and “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) court cases – which Erdoğan now blames on Gülenist police, prosecutors and judges – but also after the Uludere disaster in which 34 villagers were killed by the Air Force after they were mistaken for PKK militants, soldiers would prefer written orders so as not to be blamed later, just as NATO standards impose," the author writes.
"But that may not be needed. There are indications that Erdoğan might have hinted at more flexible local rule after the March 30 elections in return for a continuation of the existing de facto cease-fire; after all, no one has been killed as a result of PKK attacks or military operations in the last one-and-a-half years thanks to that dialogue process," the article reads.
The same news agency published an article by Serkan Demirtaş entitled "The Twitter ineptitude of Erdoğan’s government."
"Transportation and Communication Minister Lütfi Elvan said late on Sunday that the Telecommunication Directorate (TİB) had on a number of occasions asked Twitter to remove content on the back of court orders. He added that the number of accounts that the TİB had asked Twitter to remove was 643 from Jan. 1, 2014 up to now," the article reads.
"However, as we learn from the Twitter’s Transparency Report, Turkey requested the removal of only two accounts upon court orders between July and December 2013. This indicates an enormous increase in removal requests from Turkey in the aftermath of Dec. 17, 2013, the day when a massive corruption and graft probe engulfing four of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Cabinet ministers was launched. That tells us that Erdoğan’s Twitter drive is solely aimed at preventing the leak of more corruption allegations through social media," the author writes.
"As the government hesitated to effectively investigate corruption allegations that were allegedly linked to Erdoğan and his family, his phone recordings with family members and businessmen started to be leaked through social media. That explains the Erdoğan government’s very controversial move to ban Twitter in a bid to prevent Turkish users from getting informed about his alleged wrongdoings through non-traditional communication channels," the article reads.
"As one recalls, President Abdullah Gül was the first to break the Twitter ban and openly challenge the government’s move by saying the “complete blackout is unlawful.” In accordance with the presidency, the Foreign Ministry, institutionally, seems unhappy about the closure and has not taken any initiative in this course (apart from Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s statements on the issue). I think diplomats at the ministry prefer to see the situation as a legal problem and do not want to get involved in it," the author underlines.
"Led by a former National Intelligence Organization (MİT) official, the TİB, a government body under the Communication and Transportation Ministry, seems to have been left alone in its struggle against Twitter, which has 12 million users in Turkey. So should the situation be read as an indication of a fiercer battle to take place between Turkish institutions after the upcoming local elections? Hopefully, it’s only five days to go to elections," he concludes.
