We can live with terror, like many other nations in the world fighting against it and bearing its pains. But the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terror is different. It poses an existential threat to Turkey because it is part of a broader Kurdish question. Fighting against the PKK is not simply a fight against a terrorist organization. It requires a broader approach than security measures. The extent to which this broader Kurdish issue is addressed helps to eliminate the PKK in the medium to long term.
But once again we seem to have reduced the issue to hit the PKK presence in northern Iraq as if it will resolve the problem for good. Preoccupation with security measures makes us lose our perspective. The securitization that we are increasingly witnessing nowadays is not the solution but the problem. Since 1925, following the Sheikh Said rebellion, Turkey has chosen "securitization" to deal with the Kurdish issue. What is the outcome? The unresolved Kurdish problem has obstructed the development of Turkish democracy.
It is good to mobilize public support against terror. But what would be the target of those angry masses? They are likely to get out of hand, increasing the possibility of provocations in various parts of Turkey. We should not forget that Turkey experienced the dreadful event of Sept. 6-7, 1955, in Istanbul and Izmir, where an angry mob attacked non-Muslim citizens. Years later, it was admitted that the Sept. 6-7 event was the doing of a "special war unit" within the Turkish security forces and it was described by one of its former commanders as a "successful psychological war operation."
The public mood is ready for similar raids against "Kurdish targets" in big cities with sizeable Kurdish populations. Prevention of such a provocation should be the number-one priority for the government, much more important than a cross-border operation.
In the struggle against the PKK, the key to success is to isolate it. An isolated terror organization with its social and political bases cut off cannot survive for long. Even if it maintains some of its cells it will cease to pose an existential threat to Turkey. And we can deal with such a terror organization.
The thing to do to isolate the PKK as a terror organization and cut off its links with the Kurdish community is to eliminate the ground on which it grows -- and that is to solve the Kurdish question. For the last six to seven years Turkey has taken significant steps in improving the state of the Kurds in the cultural, political and economic domains. However limited, these should be carried on.
In this context, the continuation of the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) link with the Kurdish people is essential to enable the representation of those people in the center of Turkish politics. Without forgetting the nationalist credentials of the AK Party, I would argue that the AK Party also represents the Kurdish identity and interest, as reflected in the latest election and referendum results. The capability of the AK Party to reach out to the Kurdish people should be maintained. We should not push the AK Party into the fire over the northern Iraq issue and break up its rapprochement with the Kurds in this country.
The PKK leaders should be very happy about the last couple of weeks. Their terror acts have reached their objective of elevating the PKK to the place of a relevant entity in both Turkish and regional politics. We have caused the entire world to talk of the PKK. Our anger and reaction provided the PKK with a perfect propaganda outlet. This is not the way to fight terrorism. Gen. İlker Başbuğ complained the other week that Turkey had failed in preventing new PKK recruits. But this attitude of exaggerating the power of the PKK paves the way for new requirements to the terror organization. The power of the PKK is in no way comparable to that of the early 1990s when it was even poised to take control of some cities in the region.
I think Turkey should not exaggerate the PKK -- on the contrary, it should ignore it altogether. There are understandable reasons for the recent outrage against PKK violence. Yet we should be able to play it down and reduce the tension among the people. We may even direct this anger and resentment into a positive direction, like a national campaign for an embracing between Turks and Kurds.
Public sympathy and support for the PKK are waning. People in the region want peace, prosperity and cultural/ethnic recognition, all of which have been increasingly provided in recent years. As I explained earlier, this is the reason for an increase in the terrorist activities of the PKK -- it is out of the realization that it has become irrelevant to the solution to the Kurdish problem.
Instead of abandoning it, the Turkish government should launch an aggressive reform package demonstrating its will to manage its own agenda. Continuing reform with even surprising speed will put the PKK into a more irrelevant position over the Kurdish issue.
Turkey should not give the opportunity to the anti-reformist camp by abandoning the reform process. What has happened to the new constitution? The PKK and the hawks in Turkey should not be allowed to hijack Turkey's reform agenda. Cutting the PKK's social base requires continuing with the reform process.
More democratization, not securitization, is the way out of this crisis. We should not lose our perspective.
01.11.2007
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