News Analysis: Efforts urged to bring Turkey from verge of civil war

Turkey is been increasingly dragged to the brink of an overall bloody civil war as violence escalates, political experts and Kurdish politicians warned here on Friday.

"If the clashes between Turkish army and outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) continue at the same pace and the curfew remains, Turkey will soon experience a civil war," Fuat Keyman, an academician in Sabanci University, told Xinhua.

PKK attacks have been increasingly continuing since the start of a Turkish military operation against PKK targets in June. More than 100 people have since been killed from each side, including civilians.

The government blames the PKK for violating the conditions of a disarmament deal aimed to end 30 years of a bloody war.

Tension has been running high amid curfews that have been enforced for more than a week in several southeastern Kurdish provinces, especially in small town of Cizre near the Syrian border.

Nazmi Gur, vice chairman of pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), described the situation in Cizre as very tense and "ready to explode."

In the meantime, Turkey's ultranationalists and supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been accused of attacking HDP offices and Kurdish minority's assets across the country amid PKK attacks.

"HDP's more than 400 party offices have been attacked across the country and our information service of head office has been set on fire in Ankara," Gur said.

Selahattin Demirtas, another HDP leader, said that "the whole country is in a blood bath." He accused the AKP of conducting "a war policy in such a chaotic period."

Gur also warned that in case the deadlock continues, the violence has the potential to spread to big cities in the form of an ethnic war between Turks and Kurds.

Murat Yesiltas, a researcher at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, also urged people to make an accurate distinction between ordinary Kurds and PKK militants.

He appealed the society to respect the country's next snap election scheduled for Nov. 1 and the HDP's presence in the parliament representing Kurdish interests.

Some said the main reason behind the government's decision to end three years of peace process between PKK and the state was the HDP's success during the last election in June.

"Results of general elections did not please Erdogan and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu," Gur, the HDP vice chairman, said. "This conflict has been started by them because they want to take the power back, which they lost at the election."

The AKP, which won only 255 seats, needed 400 seats in parliament to form one-party government.

President and former AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently said, "The current situation in Turkey would be different if the ruling party had secured 400 deputies and drafted a new constitution."

Erdogan's statement has stirred controversy among the public as it was made after the killings of 16 soldiers on Sunday during a PKK attack in the southeastern province of Hakkari.

There have been calls for the government and the PKK to declare an immediate ceasefire to prevent the situation from getting out of control.

Keyman, of Sabanci University, urged the government and all the opposition parties to issue "an urgent call for peace and develop determined policies for the normalization of the country" before the snap election. Endit