Turkey military, Kurdish clashes test peace process

The Turkish military Wednesday responded with artillery fire to attacks launched by Kurdish rebels, raising concerns over the fragility of a peace process to end a decades-long insurgency.
In a statement posted on its website, the army said militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fired mortar shells at its positions in the Daglica district in the Kurdish-majority southeast near the Iraqi border.
In a separate incident, Kurdish rebels attacked military barracks in the region with automatic rifles.
"The terrorist fire was immediately retaliated by our units deployed in the region," it said. The army did not say if there were any casualties.
The exchange of fire comes amid a fragile peace process between the Turkish state and the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies.
The latest attack is the second in a week. The military said Tuesday it launched an operation against rebel hideouts and shelters in the Mazi Dagi area in the southeast.
Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday called for Kurds to hold a congress aimed at ending their armed struggle against the Turkish state that has claimed more than 40,000 lives since 1984.
The PKK has largely observed a ceasefire since 2013 but attempts to find a deal have stalled over the issue of the withdrawal of its fighters and weaponry from Turkey.
A controversy over how to handle peace talks with the PKK has erupted between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the government, causing an unprecedented crisis within the ruling party.
Erdogan, who brandishes himself as the champion of Kurdish rights, criticised the government involvement in the process, saying that talks should go through the national intelligence which is loyal to him.
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc however said the government was in charge of the peace process and engaged in a war-of-words on Twitter with Ankara mayor and Erdogan loyalist Melih Gokcek.
- 'Poison the process' -
Underlining the fragility of the peace process, the government's pointman on Kurdish issues Yalcin Akdogan lashed out against the pro-Kurdish HDP party as well as the PKK's military leadership based in northern Iraq's Kandil mountains.
The HDP party's leader Selahattin Demirtas has said his party will remain committed to peace despite Erdogan's criticism, saying: "We are millions, you are one."
"Our president is the architect of this process and any approach waging a war against him is unacceptable," Akdogan said.
Such remarks "do not fit the sensitivities of the current phase of the process, but simply poison it and spoil the atmosphere," he said, quoted by the Anatolia news agency.
Akdogan had himself been criticised by Erdogan over his public appearance with HDP lawmaker Sirri Sureyya Onder who relayed Ocalan's call for disarmament after their February 28 meeting in Istanbul.
Erdogan had angered Kurds earlier this month by saying there was no longer a "Kurdish problem" in Turkey.
In apparent contradiction to government policy, he also said there could be no peace deal before the PKK disarms.
Some analysts see his aggressive rhetoric as an attempt to snare nationalist votes ahead of June 7 legislative elections.