Turkey Grants Immunity to Soldiers Fighting PKK

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on June 24^th that his government would be granting immunity to troops participating in counterterrorism operations. The law was passed by the Turkish Parliament late Thursday night and is meant to expand the reach and ability of Turkish soldiers fighting Kurdish militants in the south. Under the policy, military or political leaders would have to give permission in order for the courts to prosecute these soldiers.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the fight against the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) after a peace agreement collapsed last year. The PKK, a group with Marxist roots, seeks to form an independent Kurdish State and has been labeled as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union, and the United States. The group had previously been in a two-year cease-fire with Turkey, before a suicide attack in Suruc, a town on the border with Syria, killed 31 people in July 2015.

Tensions between the PKK and the Turkish government have been especially high since March, when TAK, an offshoot of the PKK, carried out a car bombing in Ankara, the Turkish capital. Since fighting resumed, PKK forces have killed roughly 500 Turkish soldiers and police officers; meanwhile, 300 Kurdish soldiers have been killed while hundreds of Kurdish civilians have suffered the same fate.

But that is just a small fraction of the people that have been killed since the fighting began in 1984; according to BBC, approximately 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in the dispute.

The United Nations and various human rights groups have raised concerns over Turkey’s new policy, warning that immunity could prompt atrocities against the Kurdish population since Turkish soldiers will no longer fear legal consequences. Similarly, it will be more difficult to investigate these human rights abuses, as the amnesty would give no reason to legally scrutinize the military’s actions. This is especially true given that political or military leaders would have to give permission in order for soldiers to be prosecuted for any crimes; these leaders would likely not want to prosecute soldiers for crimes for doing so would mean admitting that human rights violations are occurring under their direction.

The fact that this resolution passed is not surprising given that Erdogan has a strong majority in the Turkish Parliament. And given his fight with the PKK, it is convenient for him to absolve his soldiers of all possible wrongdoing in order to stimulate aggressive attacks.

While not directly being ordered to commit human rights violations, Turkish soldiers could be face a situation where targeting Kurdish civilians is viewed as the only way to achieve Erdogan’s political end-goal and are encouraged to act acordingly.