Turkish gov't and pro-Kurdish party at loggerheads ahead of elections

Ahmet Turk told his Democratic Society Party’s (DTP) parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday Prime Minsiter Tayyip Erdogan was creating high-tension at a time when everybody was expecting calming messages.

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"Now he says the DTP is the source of the tension. What should the DTP do? Does it have to keep silent? We had prepared a project for democratic solutions... But you made comments without reading or even opening the cover of it," Turk added.

 

Turk's remarks came a day after Erdogan targeted the DTP over the rising tensions. "I advise patience. But I am also concerned about when this patience will end. The citizen, whose life is threatened, will defend himself if he has the chance," Erdogan said on Monday.

 

The prime minister was responding a question about a person who opened fire into a crowd of DTP supporters that were organizing a demonstration. Nobody was injured in the incident.

 

Both sides have accused the other of increasing the tension to gain ground ahead of the local elections in March 2009. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party and the DTP are the two parties with the strongest public support in the country’s eastern and southeastern regions.

 

Tensions rose in Turkey, especially in the eastern and southeastern provinces, in recent weeks, as DTP supporters organized anti-government protests in which they clashed with security forces.

 

The DTP claims that the jailed leader of the terror organization PKK faced ill-treatment in the prison where he serves life sentence ignited the flame.