Two Kurdish ministers accused Turkey's government of promoting a "logic of war" as they quit the cabinet on Tuesday, two months after the resumption of fighting between the army and Kurdish rebels. EU Affairs Minister Ali Haydar Konca and Development Minister Muslum Dogan said the state's two-month-old offensive against the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had created a "hellish" situation "especially in the Kurdish cities".
"A logic of war has been put into place," Konca, who is a member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP), told a press conference, describing the climate in the country as worse than under martial law in the 1990s.
Lamenting the loss of life among the "police, soldiers, guerrillas, women, children and the elderly" Konca said "both the palace (the presidency) and the (ruling party) AKP send the message that this war will be continued on a larger scale."
The resignations were seen as dealing a further setback to the peace process and cease-fire between the government and PKK, which broke down in July after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched an "anti-terrorism" offensive against the militants. The HDP rejects the government's allegations that it is a front for the PKK, which has been blamed for a string of attacks that have killed dozens of soldiers and police in recent weeks, since the fighting resumed.