ANKARA, Turkey, July 28 (UPI) -- Unrest in Turkey attributed to the Kurdistan Workers' Party is being a carried out by anti-democratic forces, ministers in Ankara said.
Militants with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, have waged brazen attacks on Turkish military targets this year.
PKK militants are accused of killing four Turkish policemen in eastern Turkey this week. The attacks sparked riots in the area, which were paralleled by unrest in the west of the country that left dozens injured.
Sadullah Ergin, the Turkish justice minister, accused certain members of the Turkish political class of plotting to undermine democratic reforms in the country by stoking ethnic tensions, The Wall Street Journal reports.
"In both cases we have to take into account the probability of provocations and the intelligence services are investigating these probabilities," he was quoted as saying.
He said certain elements in Ankara who "favor the status quo" were trying to undermine reconciliation efforts in Turkey.
Ankara is locked in a power struggle between the Islamic government and secularists in the military.
Ankara pursued reconciliation with the Kurdish minority in an effort to end years of conflict with the separatist PKK. That effort was upended when Ankara barred a pro-Kurdish party from politics.
