Bringing the democratic initiative to completion is imperative. It is not enough to say that we want more democracy, more human rights, less violence -- in fact none -- more social coherence, no conspiracies and no deep state organizations; you should do what is necessary to have these things.Now, our interior minister is an educated person. Yesterday he spoke to the press presenting the point the democratic initiative reached thus far. All he said is what we already know: The government -- in fact the minister -- is meeting with various interest groups, labor unions, professional organizations and political parties, and all are supportive of the idea that there should not be any more bloodshed. This is an obvious declaration. The opposite is unthinkable.
Apart from giving messages of goodwill and calls for unity and cooperation, the interior minister spoke very clearly on two issues: constitutional reform and general amnesty. We know now that the government is not ready to work on constitutional reform and it is not ready to even pronounce the term “amnesty.”
The interior minister attested to the fact that the demand for constitutional reform came from all segments of society that they spoke to. “But for the time being, we don't have a separate constitutional amendment in our agenda on this issue,” he said. But this is the core of the problem. Politically mobilized Kurdish groups have already dropped their demands to see a reference to the Kurds in the Constitution as a founding constituent of Turkey, together with the Turks. But they still insist that the Constitution should not have any reference to any ethnic group, including the Turks.
A constitution is the basic law of the state apparatus. It is not about the nation. It must define the nature of relations between the state and the citizens. Thus, it may define citizenship rights, but it does not define the nation. Claiming, in a constitution, that a nation is clever or hardworking is no different than claiming that a nation is Turkish or Kurdish.
The resilience of the government in the face of constitutional reform is a product of the unsuccessful “university education and headscarf” reform the government tried to pass. The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) was almost closed down for a constitutional amendment that was -- unlawfully -- overturned anyhow. Its reluctance is understandable but not acceptable.
On a possible amnesty, the interior minister told the press that “we never pronounced the term amnesty, and we are not pronouncing it. The first thing is an abandonment of weapons…” This is almost an oxymoron. Who will abandon their weapons? The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)! But the PKK asks for a general amnesty in order to abandon their weapons. How will you convince the PKK to drop its prerequisite and abandon their weapons?
We don't know, and it also seems that the minister does not know.
This is not to say that the democratic initiative is wrong and that we should return to the “bad old days” of bloodshed and the continuous war on terror. We want the government to be more courageous. It has already done a lot, and with the amount of hope and expectations it created in society in general, it does not have the right to hesitate or drag its feet.
On the constitutional reform issue, I may make forced commentary on the minister's declaration and endorse it. The minister said that the government doesn't have a separate constitutional amendment on its agenda on this issue. Maybe the government has a full-fledged, overarching revision of the Constitution on its agenda and that new Constitution will offer solutions to not only the Kurdish issue but to all the country's other problems relating to the relationship between the state and its citizens.
Only determination terminates terror.
