“We are ready to contribute to efforts to solve the Kurdish issue. If the ruling party comes up with one proposal for the solution of the issue, we will come up with four proposals,” Baykal said in Adıyaman on Wednesday. He also called on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to lay down its weapons, saying that such a move could even pave the way for a general amnesty for PKK terrorists. Analysts say that Baykal's efforts to contribute to a solution will not only make a peaceful solution to this long-standing problem more likely but will also enable the CHP to win popular support in an area where it has failed in consecutive elections in recent years due to its indifference to the region's problems.Star's Mehmet Metiner, a Kurd, interprets the messages Baykal voiced during his visit to southeastern Anatolia as the expression of a historic responsibility and democratic maturity. He believes that if the PKK, the main target of Baykal's promising remarks, heeds the call to lay down its arms, the efforts to find a solution to the Kurdish problem that were recently launched by President Abdullah Gül may end in success. Noting that Baykal said: “The moment the PKK says it will not conduct politics through the use of weapons and that it will completely lay them down, the general amnesty project will start. … If the PKK promises that it will leave the mountains and will not resort to weapons again, there will be a general amnesty,” Metiner adds that if the PKK heeds Baykal's call, it will have finally opened the doors to peace.
Yeni Şafak's Fehmi Koru is among those who welcome Baykal's messages about solving the Kurdish problem and thinks that Baykal's attention to the problems of the Southeast may help his party win popular support in the region. “Contributing to the solution of problems may bring recognition to everyone, no matter what their position. With his latest statements, the CHP leader seems to have taken this path,” explains Koru. He says President Gül recently saying: “Good things will occur in the upcoming days regarding the Kurdish problem, the state units are working in cooperation with each other. Everyone should make a contribution to this process, the opposition parties as well,” shows that the government is taking the CHP's new Kurdish initiative seriously.
Milliyet's Taha Akyol thinks Baykal established the balance between terror and amnesty correctly by saying that an amnesty for PKK terrorists would be possible only after they completely laid down their weapons. “Baykal means to say that an amnesty will be possible if terrorism ends, appealing both to the public and the grass roots of the PKK,” explains Akyol, noting that this has been the general practice in similar cases throughout the world; if a terrorist organization decides to lay down its weapons, its decision is often rewarded with amnesty for its members. In this way, Akyol says, the PKK is being a shown an alternative to choosing either the mountains or prison, allowing them to participate in life by abandoning their weapons. “It is important that the public gets this message, and Baykal has made a contribution to this with his remarks. The political significance of the fact that these remarks were uttered by the leader of party established by the nation's founder, [Mustafa] Kemal Atatürk, is obvious,” suggests Akyol.
