They are embracing a discourse that suggests had it not been for the democratic initiative, we would have been living in peace and tranquility and these attacks would not have taken place. This makes one want to ask, “Gentlemen, are the deaths of over 40,000 people who have died in the course of a dirty war waged for 25 years also attributable to the start of the democratic initiative?”Asserting that the Kurdish initiative process has begun to destroy the very foundations of brotherhood and peace throughout the nation, CHP leader Deniz Baykal had the nerve to say the following from the podium in Parliament: “The government’s moves over the past four-and-a-half months as part of the Kurdish initiative have dragged Turkey into a dangerous atmosphere of fighting between brothers. If the [ruling party] continues to walk down this path, if they don’t successfully negotiate the bend, then developments of a much graver nature will become inevitable. … In order for one not to see that this initiative policy is dragging Turkey into a fight between brothers, one must not just be [a partisan on the side of the ruling party] -- they have to have lost their mind, logic and common sense and abandoned their love for their nation.” (To be honest, we’ve heard Baykal say worse things before. For example, threatening the prime minister with execution for continuing with reforms and saying that a revolution was the only way to amend the Constitution.)
And also take a look at what Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the MHP, which is no longer any different from the CHP in terms of taking the status quo under its wing, has to say: “Bloody terrorism, the aim of which is ethnic division, has dragged Turkey into a period of increased separatist political ambition and ethnic incitement, a dangerous period of confrontation. People have begun to view the individuals they previously saw as neighbors, shop owners, workers, civil servants and friends instead in terms of their identities with regard to ethnic roots and denomination. And it has been understood by our people that contrary to what it claims, this course has nothing to do with peace and tranquility, democracy and freedom, development and prosperity, cohesion and brotherhood. Campaigns to blacken our national history in the name of ‘coming face-to-face [with problems]’ have gained speed with their claims to solve national problems.”
If the Democratic Society Party (DTP), which was until Friday another opposition party in Parliament, had not been shut down by the Constitutional Court, I’m sure that they would have also engaged in attempts to drag the democratic initiative process through the mud -- albeit for different reasons -- in accordance with commands coming down from the PKK in the mountains. But they should not grieve -- for what the PKK’s representatives within the DTP were probably going to do has already been done, and exceeded, by Murat Karayılan, the terrorist leader of the executive council of the PKK’s urban arm, the Kurdish Democratic Confederation (KCK). In his call, Karayılan said all Kurdish youths should be more active and that all Kurdish youths, male and female, should set out for the mountains. He requested that youths either flock to the mountains or take to the front lines of demonstrations. He also targeted the Justice and Development (AK Party), blaming it for the DTP’s closure.
As you’ll remember, I wrote a piece the other day entitled “PKK-DTP-CHP-MHP blood brotherhood.” This piece prompted a great reaction from the MHP and CHP authorities. Now be honest -- take a look at this picture and tell me whether or not it’s possible to evaluate the situation otherwise.
At every opportunity, the CHP and MHP hold the democratic initiative process and hence the AK Party government responsible for tension moving into the streets and violent acts. There are those who rightfully can’t understand how it’s possible for a democratic enterprise to pave the way for violence. With your permission, I’ll explain… You’re right -- no democratic initiative or peace effort can intrinsically lead to violence and chaos. An effort with hopes for members of all segments of society to live together in a democratic environment as equal citizens that is set on achieving its goal will not lead to ethnic discrimination or ethnic conflict. But there are those segments who have indexed their political discourses and material expectations according to this dirty war in a country that has experienced low-intensity warfare for 25 years. If these segments have extensions in politics, in the military-civilian bureaucracy and in the judiciary, and if they are as discomfited by democratic initiatives as the terrorist organization that feeds off of violence -- it is when these conditions are in place that democratic initiative efforts can be turned into a bloody spiral of violence.
It is for the abovementioned points of discomfort that a segment of the bureaucracy, judiciary, military, political sphere, business world and media have been deployed from the very start to oppose the democratic initiative. The PKK, MHP and CHP -- in addition to pro-status quo circles within the judiciary, bureaucracy and military -- were all well aware that a process that would bring peace and tranquility to the nation would shake the very ground upon which they stand. I’ll say this much -- they are as troubled by this initiative effort as the PKK in the Kandil Mountains, whose existence is threatened by it. It is for that reason that the CHP and MHP put up as much opposition to the initiative as the PKK did, reacted as much as it did. Of course, with one difference: The PKK supported the initiative in the very beginning, until it understood that the end of the process would mean its own elimination -- as for the CHP and MHP, they were able to understand from the outset how a solution to the Kurdish problem would make it all too clear to the public just what political dwarves they are.
Those who owe their existence to blood and violence are most pleased by those in favor of violence, even if they’re from the opposing side. It is for that reason that it’s absolutely no coincidence that the politics pursued by the hawks of the PKK and DTP and the discourse that they employ match up with the CHP and MHP, who appear to be the most opposed to this. And it’s also for that reason that it worked in their favor for the moderates within the DTP -- which during the initiative process represented Kurds for better or for worse -- who supported the process, to be eliminated. For they knew that if the DTP moderates were out of the way, the only other addressee left for the initiative would be the PKK with its bloody hands. And this would naturally bring about the death of the initiative process. This solution to the PKK’s existential problem with regard to the democratic initiative doubtlessly was the wish of the CHP and the MHP along with those pro-violence persons within the state. The Constitutional Court sprang to their aid and, depending on an indictment that left out the hawks within the DTP, shut the party down. The most dovelike of the party’s members were slapped with political bans, while the path of the hawks was left clear. The court left only a sole terrorist organization for the government to speak to.
I remember as though it were yesterday when in the early 1990s police marched in İstanbul chanting slogans including “damn human rights” -- this country has also seen things like that. But the point to which we’ve now come isn’t very encouraging either. After all, today we’re going through a period in which outside of a single political party nearly all of the political actors and their appendages are saying in one voice, “Damn the democratic initiative.” But there’s no giving up. The work of libertarian democrats is certainly difficult, but it is by no means impossible. I stand and applaud Prime Minister Erdoğan, who despite all of this said that his addressee is the public and that they will stick to the path. I maintain my hope that he will have the will to make this statement a reality, and I recommend that he uses professional methods that open the communication channels wide to show the public the realities at hand.
