Yes, we must live together!

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terror is a three-decade-long extrinsic problem; however, Turkish-Kurdish unity is a 1,000-year-long event. We are, by way of the mandate placed on us by history and geography, forced to live together. The inability to live together, for both Turks and Kurds, means “drowning in one another’s blood.” This is why we must coexist, what else did you happen to think?

These words were written during a time in which the PKK was winded and experiencing one of its most anxiety-ridden times.

How is it that the PKK is able to conduct the latest wave of operations it has signed its name to if is in such an anxious, difficult state?

Just as inactivity does not necessarily mean that terror has ended and the organization has weakened, the escalation of terrorist activities is not indicative the organization’s strength. An organization such as the PKK, which has “approximately 1,500 men with weapons,” in the southeastern mountains of Turkey has the kind of capacity that will allow it to conduct the operations we have seen over the past few months at any time.

The possession of a certain capacity for activities today does not mean that they will remain in possession of such a capacity in the future. There may be even more intensified attacks in the summer. Nobody should be taken by surprise. But the real question is: For how long will the PKK be able to protect this capacity for terrorist activities? Will it continue for a few more summers?

What will determine the future of the organization are the geopolitical conditions. Geopolitical conditions do not determine the fate of organization such as the PKK on a daily basis. They do, however, determine them in the long run. Those circumstances are tightly woven together to form the grounds where the organization will be suffocated in the future. It is only a matter of time before the new geopolitical conditions in the region bring an end to the PKK. The international political situation is suffocating the PKK in the mountains. Because it is aware that it is choking, the PKK is hanging on to life by its fingernails.

Intellectual weakness

Just as Turkey’s intellectual weakness is diminishing Turkey’s room for maneuver in foreign politics, columns such as “Must we live together?” form a fist that comes down on Turkey’s struggle against the PKK.

In our sight is a PKK that has been struggling unsuccessfully for almost 30 years to create a “Kurd-Turk rumble.” There is no point in writing such pieces at this time, other than tossing a life-preserver at the PKK.

Is it their disloyalty which causes them to pen such pieces?

No, it’s their ignorance.

They do such things because they are not able to read the region’s new geopolitical status and they are unable to understand the mindset of fighting terror.

Who knows, perhaps some of them are thinking, “This may be a good way to hit out at the government.”

Surely Turkey is free to discuss everything. However, there is a method, manner and timing for the discussion of everything. There are some topics which, when pushed to the spotlight in an untimely fashion, create severe repercussions.

Nobody will be able to give account for the consequences.

The projection such writings will create in the minds of the masses are nothing like those of the “shifting of axis” discussions which are haphazardly tossed about. However, when “ignorance” and “ill-intent” collide at the right time it can leave one in a very difficult situation.

The pens behind these columns should for one minute put themselves in the shoes of those who direct the mountain cadres of the PKK. What do people such as Murat Karayılan, a leading figure of the PKK, think upon reading such pieces? What kind of effects do such columns have on the PKK’s action strategies?

Whose interests are these pieces which appear to be the “face of truth,” whether intentionally or not, serving?