Just like the steps taken inside the country, Turkey also took huge steps in the surrounding regions. It went beyond its borders and embraced its brothers once more. It began to stand against dictatorships. It embraced communities. It gained their trust. In this way, in the most challenging nations, such as Afghanistan, holding a Turkish flag became better protection than wearing the thickest armor.
Now some say, “You are too much, Turkey.” Turkey is being forced into becoming an isolated country. Others want Turkey to consume its energy within its borders. They want Turkey’s self-confidence to be filed down. To this end, a move regarding the Armenians was made in Paris. The Kurdish issue was put forward again. If I am right in my analysis, new issues need to be put forward. New steps that will demoralize the Turkish people and drive the country into loneliness may come.
Within this scope, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) carried new strategies into action.
In the first strategy, it started to point out that Kurdish people don’t acknowledge state authority and that they legitimize violence. For this reason, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) İstanbul deputy Sabahat Tuncel daringly and without any fear slapped Chief Inspector Murat Çetiner and insulted him.
The quid pro quo for this slap and insult was TL 10 worth of compensation for pain and suffering. BDP group Vice President Hasip Kaplan broke a glass in Parliament and threw it onto the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) group. BDP Muş deputy Sırrı Sakık tried to crush the microphones in the parliamentary bench. Uludere District Governor Naif Yavuz was nearly lynched on a condolences visit. However, according to Kurdish traditions, a guest is untouchable. Those who visit to express condolences are guaranteed safety. The lynch attempt that occurred in spite of this fact actually carries traces of the new strategy.
In its second strategy, Kurds and the state were brought face-to-face in an effort to disable the authority of the state. To this end, the children of Uludere were used ruthlessly. A blind eye was turned to the deaths of 35 civilian villagers in the bombing. That being said, the fact that inexperienced children were allowed to go into an area under the control of the PKK, despite the fact that entering that land as a group would not be safe, could be seen as an indication there was a different strategy at play. And, in line with this plan, the people who died were buried under the control of the PKK in coffins wrapped in cloth in Kurdish colors and, thereby, were monumentalized.
The ability of the Turkish military to carry out new operations in the region was restricted. Smuggling was legitimized. Above all, the lack of recognition of state authority by the civilian Kurdish masses was brought vigor. Uludere will try to become a new milestone for the Kurdish movement in Turkey. From now on, we will observe the Kurdish movement as “the power that controls the streets and squares.” Maybe we will encounter acts of unarmed civil violence against the state authority in regions where the Kurds are many in number.
As a result, in the Middle East, the construction of politics is different. There is another game inside a game. It is pointless to try to find the bottom of the ocean in the Middle East. What matters is being able to swim. While Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad clears out pro-Turkey Arabic politicians, while Israel gets ready to bomb Iran and while the governors of Syria nurse a grudge for Turkey, how correct is it to explain Uludere as a deficiency in intelligence?
