EASTERN Turkey has been paralysed for weeks by clashes between government forces and Kurdish extremists. Now violence is spreading to the rest of the country. Roadside bombs laid by Kurdish fighters killed 30 soldiers and policemen on September 6th and 8th. Bent on revenge, nationalist crowds waving Turkish flags attacked offices of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). In the Mediterranean resort of Alanya, protesters burned a building that housed its provincial headquarters. In Ankara, the capital, a group of fanatics broke into the national party office and tried to set it on fire.
In many places small businesses owned by Kurds have been torched. In the west and center of the country, angry crowds stopped coaches traveling to the largely Kurdish regions in the south-east, threatening passengers and breaking windows. Offices of the Hürriyet newspaper, which has been accused of distorting statements by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, were surrounded on two occasions by demonstrators wielding stones and clubs.
Two years of talks between the central government and independence-minded Kurds seem…
