PKK Party conference season

The annual new year's eve amateur drinking competition in Taksim Square has been canceled to show support for the Turkish soldiers bombing PKK rebel camps in northern Iraq. Why should Istanbulus have a good time when the boys are blowing villages up to keep them safe.

The increased security alert may have resulted from the arrest of a suspected suicide bomber who was apprehended as he got on the Istanbul metro and may have contributed to the cancellation too. He was tailed for three weeks after coming over the border from Iraq and nabbed in the nick of time with a back pack full of explosives.

Having helped police with their inquiries he mentioned in passing that there were 800 PKK rebels who had received suicide-bomber training with 100 or so of them primed and ready to go.

A conservative estimate has PKK membership at roughly 3500. So that's about 25% of the party ready to blow themselves up, leaving the organization seriously depleted. I would have liked to have been at he party's annual conference when that motion was tabled.

"Brothers and sisters, we now come to motion 34 on the agenda; suicide bombing. We appreciate that this policy will expedite the Turkish army's goal for them, render our armed struggle impotent, and alienate our grass roots support, but we really think this is the only way forward."

"All those in favour say 'Banzai!'"