The largest of these operations, launched almost three weeks ago, targeted the PKK as well as the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), which is represented in Parliament. Police detained over 100 people who are allegedly members of the PKK or among their supporters within the DTP in simultaneous operations conducted in 12 cities, with predominantly Kurdish Diyarbakır at the center of the police raids. Senior members of the DTP, including the mayors of a number of provinces, were among those detained.
Protesting the raids and the detentions, DTP deputies staged a round-the-clock sit-in at Parliament late last week. Since the operations began almost three weeks ago, there have been neither satisfactory official explanations for the operations nor comprehensive analyses in the media.
But according to Professor Mithat Sancar from Ankara University's faculty of law, the Turkish military's attempts to expand its room for maneuver in influencing developments in the Kurdish issue lie behind the PKK-DTP operations.
"In my opinion, the Turkish military has been trying to use to its benefit an unavoidable process in the Kurdish question [the PKK's ongoing politicization]. By enabling the PKK-DTP to be taken to court following the operations, the military seeks to weaken them so that the planned Kurdish conference will not take any steps to recognize the PKK as an interlocutor," Professor Sancar said.
A Kurdish conference that was expected to take place in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil this month has been postponed indefinitely.
During his April 14 speech, Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ gave the government a green light to extend the scope of the amnesty law to draw more PKK militants down from the mountains. An earlier amnesty law was not successful as it did not result in a large number of militants surrendering.
The government will ask Gen. Başbuğ to clarify what he meant in his April 14 statement during a planned meeting of the National Security Council (MGK) today.
The green light Başbuğ gave the government on the issue of bringing PKK militants down from the mountains aims to pre-empt any government or US effort to take control of the PKK problem and the Kurdish issue out of the military's hands, argued Professor Sancar.
In the nearly 25 years that security forces have fought the PKK since the outbreak of PKK violence in 1984, not only the fighting strategy against the PKK problem but also the political aspects of the Kurdish issue have been controlled by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). However, since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002, both the PKK issue and the Kurdish problem have, to a certain extent, come under the control of the political authority, but the TSK has continued to play a serious role in the political aspects of both issues.
The TSK does not seem to be able to prevent the Kurdish conference from taking place, so they have instead been trying to prevent the PKK from being taken as an interlocutor in any future attempts to end PKK violence, stated Professor Sancar, adding that the latest PKK-DTP operations are, thus, aimed at decreasing both the PKK and DTP's room for maneuver.
Ahmet Türk, leader of the DTP and a deputy in Parliament, told Neşe Düzel from the Taraf daily yesterday that the latest PKK-DTP operations would not prevent the Kurdish conference from taking place.
"The PKK said they would give a chance to the DTP to develop the peace process, saying, 'We will silence the arms.' The [Turkish] state did the opposite and tried to change the PKK's decision through its operations," he noted.
The latest developments tell us that Turkey has entered into yet another vicious circle in the Kurdish issue that carries serious risk of further postponing a solution to one of the country's many critical problems, foretelling further instability.
