ANAKARA // The leader of Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party warned on Wednesday the country was being dragged into a civil war after a night of nationalist-tinged “lynching” that left several of its offices in flames.
Commentators warned Turkey risks being plunged into a protracted internal conflict, as the government keeps up a huge military operation against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants and the rebels hit back with daily attacks against the security forces.
But the violence Tuesday night spilt over into the streets, as angry nationalist mobs who accuse the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of collaborating with the PKK attacked its offices in several cities.
The tensions have spiked after 29 soldiers and police were killed in two separate attacks in the country’s east on Sunday and Tuesday, the deadliest strikes in the current phase of the conflict.
Late Tuesday, a HDP office in the capital Ankara was attacked and torched while another branch in the southern city of Alanya was also set on fire.
A party official said that scores of attacks across the country had caused “major damage”.
HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas denounced what he described as two nights of “lynching” which he said was supported by the government.
“In the last two days more than 400 attacks (on HDP) property have been carried out. We are facing a campaign of lynching.”
He said that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had ordered a campaign to target the HDP and said they should be brought to justice.
“It is not us (the HDP) who has taken the decision to start this war and intensify it... the decision has been taken by the president and the prime minister,” he said in televised comments.
“They want to create a civil war and the last two days have been rehearsals for this,” he said.
The violence has upended a 2013 ceasefire aimed at allowing a final peace deal to end the PKK’s three-decade insurgency, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
With tensions soaring, Mr Davutoglu denounced Tuesday night’s violence and appealed for calm.
* Agence France-Presse