Speigel Online International Google - After the bomb attack on Tuesday, tensions are mounting in Turkey. The government blames the Kurds and the military has not ruled out hunting down Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq. German commentators fear that Turkey could be sliding deeper into chaos.
Shopkeepers in Ankara hang the Turkish flag to protest against Tuesday's suicide bomb.
The attack was the worst in Ankara in 10 years. On Tuesday, a suicide bomb in the Turkish capital killed six people and injured 100. The government immediately fingered the Kurdish separatist group Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of carrying out the attack, but the group denies any involvement.
The Ankara governor, Kemal Onal, said on Thursday that the bomber had been identified as Guven Akkus, a 28-year-old from the predominantly Kurdish southeast. Akkus' body was completely blown apart in the blast, which has led the police to assume he was the bomber and that the PKK was behind the attack. "The type of the explosives and equipment used is similar to those used by the separatist group,'' Onal told reporters.
There are fears that the attack could further increase tensions in Turkey, which is facing snap elections in two months. The country has seen widespread demonstratons by secularists against the prospect of a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) becoming president, due to the party's roots in political Islam.
The PKK, which both the US and the European Union regard as a terrorist group, has been fighting for autonomy in Kuridish dominated south-eastern Turkey for many years. On May 18 it announced that it was lifting a unilateral cease-fire. In the aftermath of Tuesday's bomb attack, the Turkish army is considering carrying out military operations against PKK bases in northern Iraq.
German commentators fear that the blast could add to the already simmering tensions in Turkey, and further destabilize the country.
The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
"The attack comes at the worst time for Turkish democracy. It could add to the power struggle between the army and the government and increase observers' and investors' doubts about the country's stability. If the army decides to use the attack for its own purposes, then democracy is in danger ... It is no secret that the generals would like nothing better than to march across the border to search for PKK members who are hiding in northern Iraq."
"That would be fatal. It would be seen as an affront to Turkey's NATO partner, the US .... And could escalate the situation in the Kurdish-populated south-east of the country."
"The army ... could achieve what the PKK never managed to: Splitting Turkey, and inciting the Kurds and Turks to fight each other. It is election campaign time in Turkey and the mood is tense. But parliament must resist the temptation of approving a deployment into northern Iraq."
The left-leaning Tageszeitung writes:
"There is little trace in everyday life of the democratic reforms introduced for the Kurdish minority two or three years ago. The Kurdish language is still discriminated against, elected Kurdish mayors are constantly being dragged into political trials. And the people have been abandoned to economic misery. There have been attempts, through bureaucratic chicanery, to prevent independent Kurdish candidates from being elected to parliament. All of this is playing into the hands of the PKK which has no interest in peace or a democratic normalization in the south east of Turkey, as that would diminish their influence."
"After the attack in Ankara the military will probably fall right into the PKK's trap and tighten the screws of repression even further. That is unlikely to prevent any more attacks, but will just push more young Kurds into the arms of the PKK. There doesn't seem to be any political power in Turkey that can stop things from escalating. A return to the chaos of the 1990s seems inevitable."
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After three German soldiers were killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan on Saturday, there has been a public debate (more...) about whether Germany should withdraw its troops and whether its mission in Afghanistan still makes sense.
The Financial Times Deutschland writes:
"The debacle in Iraq has drawn attention away from the fact that the Western allies in Afghanistan are at almost as much of a loss. The likely defeat in Iraq, makes it all the more important that the West doesn't fail in Afghanistan."
"The stabilization of Afghanistan is a project that deserves every Western effort. Yet the political debate in the US and Europe has failed to adquately take this into account. In many countries, including Germany, there is instead a knee-jerk 'without us' position ... And weak political leadership has only half-heartedly attempted to convince the people of the need for the Afghanistan deployment."
"During the biggest operation in NATO history, there is a great danger that, because of the reservations on the part of European governments, the West will lose the political will to mobilize the necessary resources for Afghanistan."
The conservative daily Die Welt writes:
"Contrary to some illusions in Berlin the relations (with the Afghanis) are so fragile that they can easily be broken by the guerrillas and their suicide terrorism."
"The Bundeswehr troops have to sign up for the fight against the terrorists and be successful -- Germany's position and reputation depends on it."
"The German government has to act, provided they believe in the mission, in order to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a staging post for the world's guerrillas. If it fails to realize the seriousness of the situation, it will soon be heading for an incalculable 'Exit' sign."