Turkish Press Review
Turkish dailies are heavily dominated by protests in many Turkish cities over the battle between Kurdish groups and ISIL for the Syrian city of Kobani
ISTANBUL
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Most Turkish newspapers on Thursday cover demonstrations which broke out in different cities around the country over the plight of the ISIL-besieged Syrian-Kurdish town of Kobani which is just kilometers from Turkey’s southern border.
The nationwide protests erupted after Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant extremists penetrated Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab.
Protesters claimed that the Turkish government has done nothing to halt the relentless advance of the militant group in the Syrian city, which has become the scene of fierce street battles between Kurdish groups and ISIL.
“Who won?” says HURRIYET, reporting that at least 22 people died and hundreds of others were injured after the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party called for Turkish street protests. The newspaper reports that curfews were declared in six cities across Turkey.
According to the newspaper the biggest concern is the future of Turkey’s ‘solution process’ aimed at ending a decades-old conflict with the outlawed PKK.
MILLIYET runs the headline: “PKK and Huda Par clash.” Huda Par is a legal Kurdish party, opposed to the PKK.
The newspaper quotes Diyarbakir governor Huseyin Aksoy as saying: “Police and gendarmes were prudent.” The paper reports Aksoy suggesting that the Diyarbakir violence was between Kurdish groups, rather than between Kurds and the police.
Aksoy said that four pro-Huda Par sympathizers died during the clashes in Diyarbakir while three pro-PKK protesters also lost their lives.
The front page of today’s VATAN quotes Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu saying: "The Turkish government will sacrifice neither its state nor its law and order – everyone must know this." Davutoglu was speaking on Wednesday after a security summit in the Turkish capital.
The newspaper quotes Davutoglu saying: “We will not sacrifice the peace process to this vandalism.”
YENI SAFAK also quotes the Turkish prime minister rounding on the United Nations: “The sin in Kobani is on the U.N. Security Council and [its] five permanent members.”
According to the newspaper Davutoglu described as “hypocrisy” calls for Turkish intervention in the situation after others were silent as 300,000 people died in Syria’s three-year civil war.
HABER TURK runs a story about a ‘buffer zone’ proposal on the Turkish-Syrian border. The newspaper reports that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Kobani by phone yesterday with French President Francois Hollande. The newspaper claims that Paris supports a possible buffer zone at the border although London and Washington remain cautious.
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