Aygün’s kidnapping highlights several important points both due to the anti-terror and pro-democratic profile of Aygün and the timing and place of the kidnapping, writes Adem Yavuz Arslan from Bugün. He adds that whenever the PKK realizes that it is losing prestige because of one of its acts, it tries to save itself either by claiming that local independent groups or shady and covert groups within the organization did it. This is what happened in the case of Aygün. The PKK, which seems to have no proper or well-planned strategy, carrying out random acts in a panicky way, first proudly announced that it was the perpetrator of the abduction. But when the criticism and reactions against the kidnapping mounted in the international as well as local media, the terrorist organization put the blame on “local independent groups in the region” in a tactical maneuver.
Star’s Şamil Tayyar says that at a time when the PKK was working hard to create an atmosphere of panic and spread its propaganda by carrying out attacks in Şemdinli and Foça, which added to concerns already created by the prospect of a Kurdish state in northern Syria, the CHP’s move to call on Parliament to convene an extraordinary meeting regarding the escalating acts of terrorism served the PKK’s aim. By abducting a CHP deputy the PKK aimed to panic the CHP and to get the PKK in the headlines again. Of course, an abduction by the PKK, regardless of whether a person is a deputy or not, hurts us all, but if this abduction had a greater impact on our consciences than the bloody acts in Foça and Şemdinli, then we, and specifically the CHP, should draw a lesson not to fall into the PKK’s trap, Tayyar notes.
On the other hand, the PKK’s decision to kidnap a deputy whom the Kurdish locals in Tunceli elected disproves the terrorist organization’s claim of representing the will of the Kurdish people, says Akşam’s Deniz Ülke Arıboğan, signaling that a greater split will soon occur between the PKK and the local people in Kurdish-populated regions.
