Apart from BDP deputies and members, Kurdish intellectuals who do not follow the line of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were among the participants of the DTK meeting. Given the fact that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government’s Kurdish initiative stalled due to several unwanted and undesirable developments during the solution process, the fact that the Kurdish problem has been put on the agenda once again and the existence of the DTK as party with which the government can work have rekindled hopes for a solution to the Kurdish problem.The Yeni Şafak daily’s Fehmi Koru suggests that this government may have to speak with the DTK as Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk are included in this congress. The government had previously paid no heed to the BDP after Türk and Tuğluk were banned from politics following the closure of the BDP’s predecessor, the Democratic Society Party (DTP). According to Koru, without excluding the BDP, the government should take the DTK seriously in order to ensure that a large segment of the population in the Southeast, including intellectuals, contributes to the solution of the Kurdish problem. Koru thinks if the government takes advantage of the current process, which began with the PKK’s declaration of a cease-fire, the solution to the Kurdish problem may take a new and fruitful turn. “As the groundwork is prepared for a democratic debate and people begin to listen to each other, we can be more hopeful about a ‘great consensus’ that will please everyone,” says Koru.
The Vatan daily’s Okay Gönensin says: “The DTK is an ‘authorized’ Kurdish council, and its demands are becoming more and more obvious every day. Now, this council is trying to obtain more representative power with the participation of Kurdish politicians and intellectuals.” Among the DTK’s demands, he says, there are ones that could be realized immediately and those which will take a long time and be the subject of much debate in the coming decade.
The Star daily’s Mehmet Altan refers to the DTK as “a new chance” for a solution to the Kurdish problem as well as Turkey’s democratization. Altan adds that the issues brought up by the DTK are concerns that the Turkish Republic should address if it wants to show that this is a country for Kurds, too. “Drafting a new constitution and lowering the 10 percent election threshold are necessary and obligatory moves to this effect,” says Altan.
