Visit to Southeast Turkey Offers Bleak View of Peace with Kurds
A visit to villages in southeast Turkey provides a window on the challenges for the Turkish-PKK peace process.
I tweeted on July 8, while traveling in Lice, from our Turkey Pulse account in which I host. Lice is a small town, encompassing 56 villages, with a population of 12,200 in southeast Turkey about 90 kilometers [56 miles] from Diyarbakir.
"This's where I get closest to a PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] checkpoint. Behind the hill, I’m told, is the first PKK cemetery [on Turkish soil] for 171 terrorists,” I wrote, sharing the picture from the scene. It has become a very different environment than the time I spent in this part of the country as a BBC reporter in the late 1990s. My guide kept pointing out to me the hills that are in complete control of the PKK, where I spotted from afar a few PKK members in uniform and arms. In the past, it was not possible to see them so freely walking around in daylight.
