Turkish warplanes have been carrying out frequent bombing raids on PKK camps in mountainous northern Iraq and in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast. It is the worst violence North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey has seen in two decades, coinciding with fighting across the border in Syria involving government troops and Islamic State militants.

Turkey’s ongoing two-month-old offensive against the PKK, is viewed with suspicion by Erdogan’s critics.

“Following instructions from our Prime Minister (Ahmet Davutoglu) we will advertise for 5,000 “village guardians” in the press”, Interior Minister Selami Altinok said, according to Al Jazeera.

The AKP is hoping to reverse the losses it sustained in the last election – in June – which stripped the AKP of its governing majority, forcing it into coalition talks that ended in failure.

Militias in eastern Turkey aligned with the insurgent Kurdish PKK have taken the war against the state to the streets, and Turkish security forces are panicking.

“Mr. Erdogan used to be celebrated by supporters of democracy in Turkey for taming the military”.

“Turks and Kurds are brothers, there is no difference, those who want to divide us will not succeed”.

In turn, the PKK conducted retaliatory attacks targeting Turkish soldiers and police, accusing Ankara of supporting ISIL – a claim which has been vehemently denied by the government.

The government has accused the HDP of being a front for the PKK, allegations the party – which also enjoys support among non-Kurds – rejects. Every effort is being made to undermine the HDP, so that it fails to pass the electoral threshold, making it possible for Erdogan’s AKP to regain power.

Between 2013 and 2015, at least 410 children fled from the PKK and surrendered to Turkish security forces.

Around 150 soldiers and police have been killed since the return to open conflict, compared with over a thousand rebels, according to pro-government media.

The PKK began its separatist insurgency in 1984, triggering a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people. The rebels have since refocused their demands on securing greater autonomy and cultural rights.