As PN went to press, there was a pause in the Turkish government’s brutal war against Turkey’s Kurdish minority, a war that began last summer when the government terminated a two-year peace process with the main Kurdish insurgent group, the PKK.
In March, the government lifted most city curfews, including a three-month curfew that turned the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir into a warzone.
According to the International Crisis Group, 344 Turkish security forces, at least 298 PKK militants and as many as 259 civilians have been killed in south-east Turkey since last July.
The spring is predicted to bring more war, boosted by an influx of PKK fighters able to cross into the country after the winter
Both the government and the PKK are feeling emboldened by their strategic importance to the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition in Syria.