It is understood that the government has asked its politically powerful military to reduce the level of military activity in northern Iraq during the initiative process, which has already received a serious blow following the recent closure of a pro-Kurdish party.
Nevertheless, it is a positive development that there have not been any major aerial operations inside northern Iraq to hit PKK camps, which would have alienated Iraqi Kurdish authorities at a time when Turkey has been seeking their aid in disarming the PKK, which operates mainly from the Kandil Mountains in the region.
As a matter of fact, Monday marked the first time the trilateral mechanism established almost a year ago among Turkey, Iraq, Iraqi Kurdish officials and the US to discuss ways in which the PKK’s existence in northern Iraq can be eliminated met in Arbil, the capital of northern Iraq. This itself displays Turkish maturity in dealing with the Iraqi Kurds. The first part of the talks had already taken place in Baghdad on Sunday.
But despite heightened expectations, it does not seem possible that Turkey will achieve an end to the PKK or lessen the PKK’s existence in the region in a short period of time. This is mainly due to the fact that the PKK problem is a deep and complicated problem, while Iraqi Kurds do not appear willing to take punitive measures against their fellow Kurds, i.e., the PKK.
As Turkish Interior Minister Beşir Atalay said following his meeting with members of the trilateral mechanism in Baghdad, the primary goal of the Kurdish initiative is the elimination of the PKK while the second is to strengthen democracy.
Elimination of the PKK appears to have been the most difficult part of solving the Kurdish problem since there is no will on the part of Turkey to declare, for example, a general amnesty that will free the senior leadership of the PKK, numbering around 250. However, for the first time Turkey formally talked about allowing PKK leadership to find refuge in third countries including Iraq, when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made such remarks to the media aboard his plane on his way to the US on Dec. 6. However, Atalay lately renewed Turkey’s demand that Iraq extradite to Turkey those PKK leaders who are already on Interpol’s list. These perplexing statements stem from confusion in Ankara over how to handle the PKK leadership.
It is understood that the Turkish Foreign Ministry has not been authorized to launch any diplomatic initiative to see whether third countries, mainly Nordic nations, will accept PKK members as political refugees. A senior Iraqi Kurdish official earlier did not rule out accepting some PKK leaders as refugees inside Iraq.
Nevertheless, the Kurdish initiative is a complicated one since the PKK element in the equation hinders the progress of the initiative. It is no secret that the reasons behind the street clashes include PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is in jail, and the desire of those who want him freed as part of a general amnesty. A meaningful return of PKK militants from the Kandil Mountains as well as those from the Makhmour refugee camp in northern Iraq will all depend on the PKK and on what the Turkish government will offer as an incentive.
It is, in the meantime, very important that it is the first time that a Turkish political authority, i.e., the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has displayed a will to solve the country’s decades-old Kurdish question. But it has not yet come up with major legal measures to ease the grievances of the Kurds in particular and Turks in general as part of the Kurdish initiative and democratization process.
The underlying reason behind the government’s failure to take tangible measures to address the Kurdish problem is the fact that it has been taken hostage by a military trusteeship regime that is a road block obstructing real solutions from being found for Turkey’s deep-rooted problems.
According to Professor Ümit Cizre of the Ankara-based Bilkent University, the ability of the political authority to solve problems and to manage them has been taken hostage by “a balance,” composed of a front protecting the regime (secular), which prevents a political authority that has the majority of the seats in Parliament from making any progress on vital issues. “Will politics be able to overcome this ‘balance of horror’?” Professor Cizre asks in her article published in the Star daily’s weekend edition, Açık Görüş, on Sunday.
In the final analysis, the key issue that will help solve Turkey’s problems will be the ability of any political authority to mature and to be able to rule and govern, ending the practice of military-led establishments interfering in politics.
