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| Suicide Attack by Kurdish Militants in Turkey Kills 2 Soldiers | Suicide Attack by Kurdish Militants in Turkey Kills 2 Soldiers |
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| ISTANBUL — Kurdish militias carried out a suicide attack on a military police station in eastern Turkey on Sunday, killing two soldiers and wounding 31 others, the local authorities said. | ISTANBUL — Kurdish militias carried out a suicide attack on a military police station in eastern Turkey on Sunday, killing two soldiers and wounding 31 others, the local authorities said. |
| In an overnight assault, members of the separatist Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or P.K.K., rammed a tractor loaded with two tons of explosives into the station, in the Dogubeyazit District of Agri Province, close to Turkey’s border with Iran, the governor’s office said in a statement. | In an overnight assault, members of the separatist Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or P.K.K., rammed a tractor loaded with two tons of explosives into the station, in the Dogubeyazit District of Agri Province, close to Turkey’s border with Iran, the governor’s office said in a statement. |
| The attack comes at a time of heightened tensions between the armed group and the Turkish state, after the collapse of a two-year cease-fire and Turkey’s resumption of air raids on P.K.K. targets in northern Iraq. | The attack comes at a time of heightened tensions between the armed group and the Turkish state, after the collapse of a two-year cease-fire and Turkey’s resumption of air raids on P.K.K. targets in northern Iraq. |
| In 2013, Turkey vowed to grant its Kurdish minority greater rights and autonomy in exchange for a cease-fire after a three-decade insurgency by the P.K.K. that killed more than 40,000. | In 2013, Turkey vowed to grant its Kurdish minority greater rights and autonomy in exchange for a cease-fire after a three-decade insurgency by the P.K.K. that killed more than 40,000. |
| Officials in Ankara, the capital, said the crackdown against the P.K.K., which also included hundreds of arrests across Turkey, was in response to increased violence by the group over the past month. | Officials in Ankara, the capital, said the crackdown against the P.K.K., which also included hundreds of arrests across Turkey, was in response to increased violence by the group over the past month. |
| Ankara launched raids against the group on July 24 after its members killed two police officers in retaliation for a suicide attack against Kurdish activists in the southeastern town of Suruc last month by a Turkish citizen suspected of ties to the Islamic State. The P.K.K. accused Turkish authorities of facilitating the attack. | Ankara launched raids against the group on July 24 after its members killed two police officers in retaliation for a suicide attack against Kurdish activists in the southeastern town of Suruc last month by a Turkish citizen suspected of ties to the Islamic State. The P.K.K. accused Turkish authorities of facilitating the attack. |
| Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday said Turkey would not accept a cease-fire as people were being “martyred,” adding that the operations would continue as long as the group continued to threaten the country’s national security. | Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday said Turkey would not accept a cease-fire as people were being “martyred,” adding that the operations would continue as long as the group continued to threaten the country’s national security. |
| But in an opinion column published in The Washington Post, Mr. Davutoglu said Turkey was still committed to pursuing a peace process. | But in an opinion column published in The Washington Post, Mr. Davutoglu said Turkey was still committed to pursuing a peace process. |
| “All terrorist organizations that target Turkey must know that their acts will not go unpunished and that we will respond to their acts with full resolve, as we have every right to under international law,” Mr. Davutoglu wrote. | “All terrorist organizations that target Turkey must know that their acts will not go unpunished and that we will respond to their acts with full resolve, as we have every right to under international law,” Mr. Davutoglu wrote. |
| Turkey is currently in the process of forming a new government, after the ruling Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., lost its parliamentary majority in the June elections. If Mr. Davutoglu fails to form a coalition government this month, Turkey could face early elections in November. | |
| The escalating conflict between the P.K.K. and Turkey has also roiled the neighboring Kurdistan region of Iraq, where officials said that renewed Turkish airstrikes on the P.K.K. over the weekend had hit residential areas and caused civilian deaths. | The escalating conflict between the P.K.K. and Turkey has also roiled the neighboring Kurdistan region of Iraq, where officials said that renewed Turkish airstrikes on the P.K.K. over the weekend had hit residential areas and caused civilian deaths. |
| Massoud Barzani, the president of Kurdistan’s semiautonomous regional government, said on Saturday that the P.K.K. should “keep the battlefield away from the Kurdish region, to ensure the civilians of Kurdistan don’t become victims of that fighting and conflict.” He also repeated his call to the Turks to stop the strikes and push for a political solution. Some Iraqi news outlets reported that Mr. Barzani had asked the P.K.K. to leave Kurdistan entirely; his office denied those reports. | |
| But questions continued to simmer about whether the airstrikes, coupled with Turkish pressure, would push Mr. Barzani to make Kurdistan less hospitable to the P.K.K. | |
| That could have the effect of disrupting the military efforts of the P.K.K.’s affiliate in Syria, the People’s Protection Units, known as the Y.P.G., which has been one of the most effective groups battling the Islamic State and has become the most reliable partner on the ground for the United States-led coalition conducting airstrikes. | That could have the effect of disrupting the military efforts of the P.K.K.’s affiliate in Syria, the People’s Protection Units, known as the Y.P.G., which has been one of the most effective groups battling the Islamic State and has become the most reliable partner on the ground for the United States-led coalition conducting airstrikes. |
| Along with efforts to combat the P.K.K., Turkey has stepped up its fight against the Islamic State. Last week, the Turkish military engaged in its first cross-border confrontation with militants, while carrying out airstrikes on its targets in Syria. Ankara also granted permission to the United States to use its air bases as part of its campaign against the Islamic State. | Along with efforts to combat the P.K.K., Turkey has stepped up its fight against the Islamic State. Last week, the Turkish military engaged in its first cross-border confrontation with militants, while carrying out airstrikes on its targets in Syria. Ankara also granted permission to the United States to use its air bases as part of its campaign against the Islamic State. |
| When asked by the BBC if the P.K.K. could expect to stay forever in Kurdistan, a Kurdish official was equivocal, saying the aim was a political end to battle with Turkey that would obviate the need for the Kurdistan bases. | |
| The leftist P.K.K. has long been based in Kurdistan, but has a wary relationship with the main Iraqi Kurdish parties. Nonetheless, most Kurds are united against the Islamic State, and Mr. Barzani’s regional government has supported the expanding role of the Y.P.G. in battling the group. | |
| Mr. Barzani was said to have played a role in easing tensions with Turkey as the Y.P.G. battled the Islamic State in the Syrian border town of Kobani last year — and in persuading Turkey to open limited supply lines to the Y.P.G. and to the Kurdish communities it was defending. His government also sent Iraqi Kurdish pesh merga fighters through Turkey to Kobani to reinforce the Syrian Kurds. Mr. Barzani’s government supplied arms that were airdropped to the Y.P.G. by aircraft from the American-led coalition, and trucks loaded with aid and bearing portraits of Mr. Barzani on their hoods drove from Kurdistan through Turkey and into Syria during that battle. | |
| But Iraqi Kurds are loath to be drawn into another war when they are already battling the Islamic State. | But Iraqi Kurds are loath to be drawn into another war when they are already battling the Islamic State. |
| It is unclear whether Mr. Barzani has the power to eject the P.K.K. Iraqi officials said he could more realistically disrupt its supply lines and communications between its main bases in Kurdistan and the Y.P.G. in Syria. | |
| “That would be a disaster,” both for the battle against the Islamic State and for Mr. Barzani politically, said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a member of Iraq’s Parliament. | |
| Safeen Dazai, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government, said he did not know of any impact on the anti-Islamic State effort in Syria so far as a result of the Turkish strikes in Iraq, and denied any knowledge of the P.K.K. sending supplies or fighters from Iraq into Syria. In practice, Y.P.G. fighters easily cross in and out of Kurdistan. The Y.P.G. has been taking back territory from the Islamic State in areas near the Turkish and Iraqi borders. | |
| Officials in Baghdad are eager to embrace any available allies against the Islamic State — including the P.K.K. — and have called the Turkish strikes a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. | Officials in Baghdad are eager to embrace any available allies against the Islamic State — including the P.K.K. — and have called the Turkish strikes a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. |