The general label adopted to name the problem was “terrorism,” and we have set the whole state apparatus to counter that problem devoid of the historical, social, cultural and economic aspects -- the simply human ingredients. We have mobilized the whole of society to make sacrifices to deal with this problem with methods designed by an unaccountable bureaucracy and a political class who neither had the vision nor courage to propose more innovative and effective ones. After a quarter of a century we see that these methods have not worked. The country squandered its valuable resources by bombing national territory. We have waged a war on a part of our population, thus polarizing society along ethnic lines. The political system remained under bureaucratic tutelage, for the security bureaucracy had the authority to dictate what was necessary and what we should refrain from. Yet the problem remained unsolved. Whoever attempted to question or to criticize the current ways and means was intimidated and prosecuted or at least accused of treason. Secondly, the alleged consensus among official institutions and decision makers who ought to solve the problem is still hearsay. We have not yet heard of a comprehensive description of how to tackle the problem and a concerted effort of producing a plan (or roadmap). Furthermore, if there is a draft plan it has not been negotiated among concerned parties or with the people of this country who are both party to the problem and the prospective bearers of a peace effort, if such a process is set in motion. What we hear is military suggestions of dismantling the terrorist outfit by various means. The only novelty coming from the military is employing factors other than (or besides) force. The civilian wing of the establishment is talking of an opportunity afforded by external factors. Indeed, Iraq has to be cleared of unruly groups if this country is to remain calm after the American withdrawal, and energy sources and lines have to be secured both in Iraq and in Turkey. The Turkish power elite read this situation as an “opportunity” to seize on. Indeed it is, but this is not an internally generated opportunity where conflicting sides having decided on a common agenda of ending the protracted conflict that has cost this country so much.
Furthermore, the weakest point of the hopeful is to dwell on a thwarted logic for ending the problem. They are talking about bringing the armed Kurdish militia down from the mountains and disarming them. This may be a way but no one knows the consequences of an appeal made to an armed group with a mission. If the solution or initiative for a solution is left to them, it will come with a dear price.
When you see the terrorists as the source of the problem and want to disarm them you have to accept them as a partner to the solution. You have to negotiate. You have to be ready to listen and to meet some of their demands. Yet the basic line of the establishment has always been “we do not negotiate with terrorists.” Negotiation with intergenerational and ethnic insurgents with a sizeable support group and a reserve army of plenty of militants is hard. The commander of the armed forces of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Murat Karayılan, talking to The Times in his north Iraqi hideout, has demanded a Kurdish parliament as settlement: This means self rule, something the Turkish establishment and the majority of people bombarded with the merits of the nation-state, presented as monolithic, ethnically Turkish and centralist, will never accept. Such things have not even been debated amongst officialdom and between the politicians and the bureaucracy.
But if the other approach was considered, meaning to limit the human supply of the terrorist organization by eliminating the conditions that lead to the neglect, exclusion and victimization of the Kurds (at least those 2.7 million who have voted for the pro-Kurdish DTP), those in the mountains will be redundant. However, we have not seen this more realistic and less ideological approach adopted by those who spread hope for the solution of the “most important problem of Turkey” as President Abdullah Gül has purported. It seems we have entered another phase of the trial and error process.
