Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu appointed two new cabinet ministers to replace two Kurdish lawmakers who resigned from the interim government amid a flare-up of violence between Kurdish rebels and the army.
EU Affairs Minister Ali Haydar Konca and Development Minister Muslum Dogan resigned on Tuesday after accusing Turkey's government of promoting a "logic of war", two months after a 2013 ceasefire with Kurdish rebels fell apart.
Davutoglu late Tuesday swiftly appointed two new ministers described as independents.
Cuneyd Duzyol, under-secretary at the development ministry, replaces Dogan, while Beril Dedeoglu, a female professor at Istanbul's Galatasaray University, was appointed EU minister.
Konca and Dogan had joined the month-old caretaker government ahead of snap polls due on November 1 -- the first time in Turkish history that representatives of a pro-Kurdish party had taken seats in the government.
The resignations come amid turbulence in Turkey as the military is waging an offensive against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has responded with bloody attacks on the security forces.
"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.
In first comments since the resignations, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused the ministers of taking orders from the PKK leadership based in Qandil mountain in northern Iraq, and questioning the source of the text the ministers read out at the conference.
"It's obvious who wrote it... Qandil and other forces behind the scenes cannot have a say in the politics in Turkey," he told reporters in Ankara on Wednesday.
- War of words -
Davutoglu also said in announcing their resignation the ministers had voiced disappointment over the government's actions during a deadly nine-day military lockdown in the mainly Kurdish southeastern town of Cizre this month.
The curfew caused particular outrage among Kurds and raised concerns of a humanitarian crisis. The HDP claimed 23 civilians were killed in the operation. The government said up to 32 rebels died.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Tuesday denounced the resignation of the ministers as an attempt "to smear the presidency."
"They are not obliged to stay (in the government). But their accusations are very, very ugly," he said in an interview with Kanal 7 television.
The HDP won more than 13 percent of the vote in the June 7 election, a strong performance that effectively prevented the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) from winning a governing majority for the first time in 13 years.
The government accuses the HDP of being a political front for the PKK while the party for its part accuses Erdogan of fomenting the latest escalation in a three-decade conflict with the Kurdish rebels to boost the AKP's standing among nationalists.
On Wednesday a Turkish soldier was killed in southeastern Diyarbakir province in a shooting attack blamed on the PKK militants. Following the attack the army carried out new airstrikes against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu appointed two new cabinet ministers to replace two Kurdish lawmakers who resigned from the interim government amid a flare-up of violence between Kurdish rebels and the army.
EU Affairs Minister Ali Haydar Konca and Development Minister Muslum Dogan resigned on Tuesday after accusing Turkey’s government of promoting a “logic of war”, two months after a 2013 ceasefire with Kurdish rebels fell apart.
Davutoglu late Tuesday swiftly appointed two new ministers described as independents.
Cuneyd Duzyol, under-secretary at the development ministry, replaces Dogan, while Beril Dedeoglu, a female professor at Istanbul’s Galatasaray University, was appointed EU minister.
Konca and Dogan had joined the month-old caretaker government ahead of snap polls due on November 1 — the first time in Turkish history that representatives of a pro-Kurdish party had taken seats in the government.
The resignations come amid turbulence in Turkey as the military is waging an offensive against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has responded with bloody attacks on the security forces.
“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.
In first comments since the resignations, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused the ministers of taking orders from the PKK leadership based in Qandil mountain in northern Iraq, and questioning the source of the text the ministers read out at the conference.
“It’s obvious who wrote it… Qandil and other forces behind the scenes cannot have a say in the politics in Turkey,” he told reporters in Ankara on Wednesday.
– War of words –
Davutoglu also said in announcing their resignation the ministers had voiced disappointment over the government’s actions during a deadly nine-day military lockdown in the mainly Kurdish southeastern town of Cizre this month.
The curfew caused particular outrage among Kurds and raised concerns of a humanitarian crisis. The HDP claimed 23 civilians were killed in the operation. The government said up to 32 rebels died.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Tuesday denounced the resignation of the ministers as an attempt “to smear the presidency.”
“They are not obliged to stay (in the government). But their accusations are very, very ugly,” he said in an interview with Kanal 7 television.
The HDP won more than 13 percent of the vote in the June 7 election, a strong performance that effectively prevented the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) from winning a governing majority for the first time in 13 years.
The government accuses the HDP of being a political front for the PKK while the party for its part accuses Erdogan of fomenting the latest escalation in a three-decade conflict with the Kurdish rebels to boost the AKP’s standing among nationalists.
On Wednesday a Turkish soldier was killed in southeastern Diyarbakir province in a shooting attack blamed on the PKK militants. Following the attack the army carried out new airstrikes against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.
