The arrest by the Turkey government of lawmakers belonging to the People's Democratic Party (HDP), the main pro-Kurdish group signals the last hope for achieving peace in the country. The group's acclaimed leader, Selahattin Demirtas was among those arrested.
From the time its trouble with the rebellious Kurdistan Worker's Party restarted in July 2015, Turkey has suffered considerable casualties. In the ongoing struggle there have been more than 2,300 people killed along with 360 civilians.<
The Kurdish-populated areas in Turkey's southeast have been devastated and the government started to arrest non-combatant Kurdish activists, media groups and political leaders sympathetic to the rebels.
Efforts to bring peace have been a failure especially with the arrest of Selhattin Demirtas. The arrests and crackdown on local opposition groups started after an attempted coup on President Recep Tayiff Erdogan in July.
The falling out of the Kurdish groups with President Erdogan may have come because of developments in the civil war raging in Syria. Successes of Kurdish groups there has inspired Turkish Kurds and put Turkey government on high alert.
The Kurdistan Worker's Alliance (PKK), with U.S. support and alliance with its Syrian counterpart hope that they will prevail despite the severe military impositions by the Turkish government.
Recently, PKK's Syrian affiliate has declares an assault on Raqqa, a stronghold of the Islamic State. This move has strengthened the tie-up between US and Kurdish groups, which pose a further threat to Turkey, who is also being besieged by Islamic State.
After the arrest of Selhattin Demirtas, Henri Barkey, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington believes the worst is yet to come. He said "you can predict that things will get worse after these arrests, but how much more is hard to say"
In the Kurdish areas of Istanbul, protests have started simultaneously along with those being held in the southeast of Turkey. Not much information is coming out of Turkey because of government suppression of media after the arrest of Selhattin Demirtas.
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