As a terror organization that seeks social and political support among the Kurds, it prefers an oppressive and violent state, not a democratic one, to reign in Turkey. The golden era of the PKK in the region was when the deep state made thousands of Kurds disappear, burnt down villages and suppressed social life.What would the return of the “deep state” mean to the Kurds, Turkey and the region today? Is it worth taking such a risk?
I think the return of the “deep state” would be devastating for both the Kurds and the Turks. It would not only mean abandoning democracy and the rule of law, prosperity and EU membership, but also lead to killings, torture and even a civil war or regional war. No one can afford such a state of affairs in this region.
To give you an idea, let me remind you of a “modest” suggestion on what to do about the Kurds. Last year a veteran Kemalist, Mumtaz Soysal, a columnist for the Cumhuriyet daily, in the midst of debate on the Kurdish initiative, suggested an “absolute solution” for the Kurdish question. His ultimate solution was to “exchange the Kurds of Turkey with the Turkmens of northern Iraq.” In essence, the professor and former foreign minister under the CHP ticket was calling for an “ethnic cleansing” of the Kurds.
This was an idea inspired by the previous policies of the Kemalist regime in the 1920s and ‘30s. The aim of creating an ethnically homogeneous state by force led to fascistic policies.
There are still some who think that such policies are possible. The bad news is that the increasing violence committed by the PKK justifies and strengthens this line of thinking in Turkey.
With the recent wave of violence the only thing we can get is a revival of the repressive state apparatus. There is logic, of course, behind this. Organizations like the PKK cannot survive in times of peace. Because of this, the PKK sabotaged the government’s Kurdish initiative right from the beginning out of the fear that it would be eliminated in the process of a democratic solution.
We should remember that one of the characteristics of the PKK is its constant attempt to monopolize “agency” in the Kurdish question. It does not allow for the emergence of autonomous or semi-autonomous agencies that claim to represent the Kurdish people. To this end, it uses violence and intimidation. In this context we can understand the reluctant position of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) towards the Kurdish initiative. During the last year, the only demand of the BDP that we remember today is to recognize Abdullah Öcalan as a “counterpart” in negotiating a solution. The party, under the shadow of the PKK, could not come up as a “political agent,” a denial of its possible role in the solution. This was a policy to force the government to talk directly to Öcalan, a policy that was doomed to fail as it would be suicidal for any government, thus killing the initiative from the beginning.
The Kurdish people are not only tired of state policies that deny their ethnic identity but also of the spiral of violence inflicted by the PKK that provokes the Turkish deep state and makes Kurds’ lives extremely difficult.
The PKK, by increasing its terrorist attacks, invites the fascistic, oppressive, authoritarian state to re-emerge as it is used to fighting against such a state. To direct violent attacks toward a state that is evolving into a liberal democracy with increasing respect for minority rights and with improving economic benefits does not make sense, not only for the Turks but also for the Kurds.
The PKK is bound to lose its social and political support base among the Kurds in “normal times” of stability, democratization, economic development and peace. Thus the PKK sabotages stability, peace and democratization in order to survive.
It is obvious that the PKK wants the Turkish deep state to return, because such a violent state is the only recipe for the survival of the PKK. A violent organization, the PKK, needs a violent, not democratic, state as a counterpart.
