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Initiatives for Kurdish problem; are they real or make-believe

Yazan: HaberVs

Niyazi Dalyanci It all started in May when President Abdullah Gul announced that Turkey has an historical opportunity to solve its age-old problem with its Kurdish citizens. “Good things will happen,” Gul added. Then later during a visit to Damascus, chatting with journalists accompanying him, Gul brought a little more clarification to his statement by […]

Niyazi Dalyanci

It all started in May when President Abdullah Gul announced that Turkey has an historical opportunity to solve its age-old problem with its Kurdish citizens. “Good things will happen,” Gul added.

Then later during a visit to Damascus, chatting with journalists accompanying him, Gul brought a little more clarification to his statement by saying, “there is a consensus between all the sectors of the society, military and civilian, they are all in cooperation and coordination that has never been achieved before. No one now is trying to undermine what the others are doing.”

The euphoria created by Gul’s statements was pushed backstage because of the stormy public debate that a document allegedly written by a colonel at the headquarters of the Turkish General Staff embodied plans to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and undermine the Fethullah Gulen movement, an Islamic formation that does not have a legal structure but said to play an increasing political and social role in Turkey.

The Kurdish issue came back after the explosive “document” disappeared from the political agenda with no conclusive result.

Most recently, Prime Minister Erdogan as he was leaving for an official trip to Damascus and Baghdad announced that there is work underway to solve the Kurdish problem.

“A week ago we have initiated work to solve the Kurdish problem with my colleagues at the National Security Council. Then we have assigned the Interior Ministry to contact all the related ministries and departments, like Headquarters of the Chief of Staff, National Intelligence Organization (MIT), etc. They will also contact the parliament members elected from the area. Then they will bring us the results and we will decide on the final steps to be taken,” said Erdogan.

“As politicians we are not in a position to reveal what we are doing and with whom. We will only reveal the result,” he added.

Erdogan said that results of his policy were there for everybody to see. He listed the Kurdish broadcasts of the state-owned TRT, launching of Kurdish language departments at universities and said such steps will continue.

Erdogan also referred to his Diyarbakir speech in 2005, in which he admitted that Turkey had made mistakes in its treatment of Kurdish citizens. “Those who had criticized me then, are now saying the same things as I did,” he observed.

Diyarbakir deputy Emine Ayna, of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) responded to Erdogan claiming that he was again in an attempt to “solve the Kurdish problem without the Kurds.”
“Talking with the General Staff, MIT and other such agencies shows that the Kurds are excluded from the process,” Ayna said.

Without giving names, Ayna implied that Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) should be a party in the dialogue with the Kurds if any solution is to be found. “A journalist or any other person, or even President Gul or Prime Minister Erdogan can mediate in such a dialogue,” Ayna said.

“Heads may roll”

Despite Ayna’s urgings, Erdogan dismissed any such eventuality in his airport statement. He even reprimanded his party’s Kurdish deputies for even implying the possibility of a dialogue with Ocalan.

“After we get the results of the contacts we shall announce our decision in a unity of discourse. As a matter of fact, I won’t take lightly the statements by my party’s deputies that might undermine this unity of discourse. They say, there are words that might cause heads to roll. We do not want to take this course,” said Erdogan.

Although Erdogan did not mention any names, the target of his harsh criticism was Ihsan Arslan, the AKP deputy from Diyarbakir.

Arslan has been appearing in the Turkish media lately arguing that Ocalan should be accepted as a party in the efforts to solve the Kurdish problem. A prosecutor in Diyarbakir started legal action against Arslan after his statements to this effect before the local elections in March.

In a recent interview with the Aksam newspaper, Arslan said he talked with the prosecutor and he has the feeling that the charges against him were dropped. He enjoys parliamentary immunity anyhow.

In the same interview, Arslan repeated his opinion that Ocalan should be contacted.

“The situation requires this. By doing it you are not empowering him. You will be using his situation for the solution of the problem.”

“Abdullah Ocalan definitely controls PKK. He is controlling both the organization and its political arm. We cannot deny these. His being in prison does not make any difference. On the contrary, his being in prison makes him a victim; the grassroots see him under this light. I never want to be seen as somebody praising PKK. I am just observing the situation,” says Arslan.

Ocalan will announce his “solutions” on August 15

Meanwhile, the lawyers of Ocalan announced that the PKK leader will be announcing his “solutions” for the Kurdish problem on August 15. They said that Ocalan asked politicians, opinion makers and all the related parties to communicate their views so that he can formulate what can be done to end the bloodshed going on in the Kurdish region for more than 20 years.

What Ocalan’s lawyers told media also puts pressure on the government to make step before the PKK leader steals the initiative for a “solution.”

Commentators, who have a critical approach to the government, say that there is no concrete plan and Erdogan is playing to earn time.

The Northern Iraq factor

The pressure for a move to ease the Kurdish problem comes not from interior dynamics of Turkey but from Northern Iraq, argues Hurriyet columnist Cuneyt Ulsever.

“When the President mentioned ‘a historical opportunity’ all of us were very much excited. But he did not take it a step further than saying that ‘the government has for the first time reached a consensus with the military regarding a solution,’” writes Ulsever.

Although the president did not say anything else, everybody is talking now, the columnist observes and adds that “Apo (Ocalan), they say, will list his proposals for a solution on August 15.”

“There is a cacophony concerning the ‘Kurdish opening.’ Everybody is talking. Why is the situation like this? Because there is no political will around that can give direction to the situation,” writes the Hurriyet columnist.

He goes on to say that the dynamics for a solution of the Kurdish question comes from the USA, not from domestic exigencies.

“As I have been pointing out in this column since 2003, the USA while withdrawing from Iraq, a country on the threshold of civil war, wants us to play the role of Northern Iraq’s protector. Turkish armed forces, for the first time in a long while, are looking at this issue positively, but they want PKK to be taken out of Northern Iraq. And the USA says, ‘I will help you in this regard but you have to take some positive steps concerning your Kurdish problem,” writes Ulsever.

But there has been absolutely no concrete steps taken towards this end except the Kurdish language broadcasts of the TRT, he points out.

In order to have political will to solve the question, the prime minister should be willing to take the political risks. But so far this has not been done, according to Ulsever.

“Since there is no concrete program around, the government fails to explain itself to the public,” concludes the Hurriyet commentator.

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