Turkey Live Coverage (28 May): Erdogan's Dilemma on the Kurdish Problem

1845 GMT: European Parliament President Martin Schulz held meetings with President Abdullah Gul and government and opposition leaders. Schulz said that it was no secret that Turkey's accession process would be a long and difficult one.

As for the Kurdish problem and the case of Leyla Zana, who was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of being a member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Schulz said that there had been no real progress on the Kurdish issue and that the European Parliament would follow her case very closely.

1720 PKK has opened harassing fire to Turkish soldiers in the eastern province of Kars. One soldier was wounded and taken to the nearest hospital by a helicopter.

1530 GMT: In the middle of and exchange of fire in Aleppo, a Turkish citizen, Aliye Tas (63), was killed.  

1400 GMT: A secularist 'leftist' group named 'Turkey Youth Union' has revealed the video footage of October 2011 showing their members telling off a US soldier in one of the most touristic places of Turkey and putting a sack over his head while chanting 'killers' and 'go home Yankee'.

They said that it was the revenge for the US soldiers' doing the same insulting behaviour to the Turkish soldiers in Sulaymaniah province of northern Iraq in 2003.

1340 GMT: Peace and Democracy Party's deupty Hasip Kaplan responded to Prime Minister Erdogan's earlier remarks on the Uludere massacre. Kaplan said:

Calling somebody to account in the name of humanity is a binding duty of everyone. The Uludere massacre needs to be shed light on. Mr. Prime Minister, those dead children will chase you with their shattered bodies until the justice comes. You are the main responsible who gave the order. We are saying clearly. The Uludere massacre has an international side since it is inhuman. We applied to the International Criminal Court and to the UN Human Rights Commissariat. However, Turkey is one the two countries that has not signed the Rome Statute of the ICC, with Israel. Why? Because it prosecutes crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. 

1325 GMT: It has been reported that three PKK members were captured alive by security forces on Sunday evening in the province of Mus.

On the other hand, Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is continuing its operations in the province of Sirnak where six policemen of special operations unit were killed.

1300 GMT: Another wave of February 28 (1997) coup probe... Six generals, four of whom are retired force commanders from the coup era, were called to testify to prosecutors.

1120 GMT: The Istanbul 7th High Criminal Court unanimously accepted the indictment submitted last week by İstanbul Specially Authorized Prosecutor Mehmet Akif Ekinci. The indictment is charging top four Israeli commandors with killing nine Turkish citizens on Gaza-bound flotilla board in 2010 and seeking life sentence for them.

1030 GMT: It has been reported that 28 people were taken into custody in three provinces for alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK).

According to the court indictment, KCK is considered as the urban political structure of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The Kurdish Issue or the "Terror Problem"?

On Friday, a suicide-bomb squad of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party killed a policeman and wounded 17 in the province of Kayseri.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "Terror is raging with its activities just as always." Minister of Interior Idris Naim Sahinc claimed four attackers, detained on Saturday, came from Syria, reinforcing Ankara's claims that the Assad regime has been giving bases close to the Turkish border to PKK insurgents.

On Sunday, one lieutenant was killed and two soldiers were wounded by PKK members in the Besta district of Sirnak province.

During a convention of his ruling AKP party in Istanbul, Erdogan targeted the oppostion Peace and Democracy Party again. Erdogan, referring to January's killing of 34 civilians in Uludere, accused its deputies of pursuing “necrophile” politics: "They are dead-lovers, in other words, they need dead bodies for politics."

Erdogan's Link between Abortion and the Uludere Massacre

Abortion is rarely discussed in public in Turkey, but the Prime Minister brought out the issue in his comments in Istanbul, "Either you kill a baby in the mother's stomach or you kill a baby after birth. There is no difference."

Health Minister Recep Akdag continued, "We will impose penalties on private hospitals that have greatly increased the number of unnecessary Caesareans."

Erdogan did not sto there. He said that "every abortion is like an Uludere", connecting the issue with the controversy over the killing of the civilians in January.

A most moderate explanation on Uludere came from President Abdullah Gul who said:

What I am saying is something beyond an apology. What is an apology? An apology can be made, but I am expressing a much deeper pain so [how we feel] can be understood much better.

Meanwhile, Erdogan's strategy has been to accuse the opposition BDP of not being "brave enough" to call on PKK insurgents to lay down arms and even calling its deputies an "extension of 'terrorism". Doing so, he hopes to increase his public support as the Constitution is developed.

It remains to be seen if the abortion approach, with its link to the complexities of "fighting terror", backfires amid a response from women's rights organisations and other groups.