Turkey Live Coverage (11 June): The Government's Carrot-and-Stick on the Kurdish Issue

See also Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Regime on Its Last Legs?

---

2000 GMT: It is claimed by Today's Zaman that the Obama administration will anoounce seven countries including Turkey that will be exempt from sanctions since they have significantly cut oil purchases from Iran. 

1835 GMT: Turkish deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc said that no revision is planned to abolish specially authorized prosecutors and courts as part of a government plan to overhaul the Turkish criminal code. 

1505 GMT: It is claimed that the arrestment of BDP members including Van Mayor Bekir Kaya had been known in advance. According to this assertion, some prison cells had been emptied and readied even before they were detained. 

1500 GMT: Firat News Agency known by its close ties with the outlawed PKK, says 'KCK Executive Council member Cemil Bayık' evaluated the meeting between AKP and CHP as 'the usual policy of “trying to strain Kurds and making them surrender”'.

Besides, in response to the government's new initiative, KCK political committee reportedly declared that "any discussion or decision taken on the struggle of freedom without the will of our movement and our people is void!"

1410 GMT: UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan briefed Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu about his recent talks with the American officials on the Syrian crisis over the phone. No details released yet.  

1355 GMT: Security forces found a homemade bomb weighing 100 kilograms in the eastern province of Hakkari.

1350 GMT: Ankara is reducing its imports of Iranian crude oil in May despite of the relative increase in the first four months of 2012. 

Until May, Turkey imported 210,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil on average, including a huge 270,000 bpd in March, much higher than its 2011 average of 185,000 bpd.     

In May Turkey's state-controlled refining company, Tüpraş,  imported around 140,000 barrels per day (bpd), a 20 percent drop from its 2011 average.

1340 GMT: BDP's deputy Ufuk Uras criticizes the government's new initiative. Uras  says in his tweet:

Do you think that "no Kurdish problem yet troubled Kurds" approach is new and problem-solving?

1200 GMT: Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay says the government is working on a new initiative for Kurdish people. According to some sources, Kurdish language is to be taught as a selective course as a foreign language from the beginning of the secondary school.

The opposition party BDP is probably not going to accept the move, arguing that Kurdish, as a mother tongue, should continue as a compulsory language in education. 

1100 GMT: Three members of the Kurdish insurgency PKK were reportedly killed by security forces in Hakkari.

1045 GMT: Azad Jindyani, the spokesman of the Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has been holding negotiations with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), urging the organisation to declare a cease-fire. 

1000 GMT: Sixteen people have been detained on charges of having connections with the outlawed Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) in the eastern province of Hakkari. 

After the proposal of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for discussions for a peaceful solution, Prime Minister Erdogan has called on the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) to take part. Erdogan said on Sunday:

The MHP and the BDP should give up standing guard in front of morgues. They should give up exploiting our martyrs and the funerals of terrorists. They should get involved in this process for a solution [to the Kurdish issue]. 

While Erdogan is pointing out the importance of dialogue, operations against of the pro-Kurdish oppositon BDP have continued. On Sunday, before the Prime Minister's speech, Bekir Kaya, the Mayor of Van, and two others were arrested on charges of "membership in a terrorist organisation".

Burhan Kuzu, the head of the Parliamentary Constitution Commission, rejected the BDP's call for abolition of special court, arguing that this would "slow down" the judiciary system:

What will you do after abolishing special courts? Will you forward the cases [heard by special courts] to normal [non-special] courts? Do you expect judges to hear cases into murders, stabbings and robberies besides coup cases? Is that possible? Will judges have the time to hear all those cases?