My impressions gained in the Southeast (Diyarbakır and its environs) last week saddened me because the very center that would be positively affected by this opening more than any part of Turkey had grown skeptical. There are several reasons for this estrangement: 1. High hopes were raised that are hard to meet in a relatively short time and as much as anticipated. 2. The extent and depth of the initiative is still uncertain. 3. Opposition is fierce, visible and vocal, but institutional support is limited and the extent of public support is uncertain. 4. The government seems to be timid and is not certain about the vicissitude of the initiative that it has set out to accomplish.
There is a fifth dimension that may further make life difficult for the government, and that is the incipient friction between it and the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP). Lately, the minister of the interior, who is the acting coordinator of the initiative, has said that the DTP is sidetracking rather than boldly supporting the initiative. In return, the co-chairman of the DTP, Mr. Ahmet Türk, has retorted that the government was too vague and is not presenting anything concrete to them to support or ponder upon.
It is a pity that the party in power and its Kurdish counterpart, which ought to be natural allies in a conflict that has taken away so much from both peoples and the country, have started to criticize each other. However, there is a modicum of truth in both parties' criticism.
It is true that there is nothing definite in terms of a reform program offered by the government to the Kurds to decide what is acceptable and what is not or what else should be included in the list. The government says this is intentional because public debate will reveal what is possible and what is not, and a road map will emerge with everybody's contribution by the middle of the month to be debated in Parliament. Yet both the opposition and the DTP do not find this explanation appropriate. While the opposition parties will never change their positions because of their ideological stance and tactical calculations, the DTP is under pressure from the Kurdish people, whose anticipation has been raised considerably.
The opposition parties, namely the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Republican People's Party (CHP), stand against the initiative because their nationalism based on an ethnic accent and administrative centralism does not allow them to accept cultural pluralism and humanitarian law that will soon become a homegrown reality. For them, this an imperialist design cooked up by the US and the European Union to divide up Turkey. But they do not say why!
The problem with the DTP is quite different. While this party blames the government for being too timid and under the influence of powerful official institutions like the armed forces, the government blames the DTP as an adjunct of the notorious terrorist organization, the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party. If this is so, how in the world would the government and the DTP coalesce in solving a problem that is not even clearly defined?
Still, the official definition of the problem to be solved is “ending terrorism” and that has been reduced to bringing down the armed PKK militants from the mountains and handling them within the parameters of the Repentance Law. Neither the reasons why these thousands of people have taken up arms, nor an officially acknowledged definition of the problem is discussed. Hence the extent of official and public debate remains limited and sterile. And this disappoints the Kurds.
On the other hand, the DTP may not be a direct offshoot of the PKK, but it is the child of the same political climate. Supporters of the DTP are families who have given a son and daughter or another relative to the organization either voluntarily or involuntarily. The leaders of the DTP say: If the issue is taken to be as narrow as ending terrorism and disarming the terrorists, it is beyond us. Go talk to the PKK and its leader, who is serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison. Although true, this rhetoric aggravates everyone, especially the government that has declared that it will not bargain with terrorists.
Here is where we stand as of now. Unless an exciting breakthrough is realized soon by the prime minister, who likes surprises, the optimistic atmosphere is likely to disappear further. This is exactly what the opposition is waiting for: The failure of the party in power. For this is their only chance to increase their votes. Their gain will be the loss of the entire nation. What a pity!
