Luckily, polls conducted so far have shown that there is sizable public support for the process. However, efforts by the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Republican People's Party (CHP) and certain pro-status quo media to disseminate fears about the process with discourse of separation or division can be seen to foment the nationalist/chauvinist sentiments of part of the society and prevent greater popular acceptance of the process. Here, it is the duty of the architects of the process and the people who lend support to the process to convince the people who are still suspicious about the process that peace in the country will be attained only through the democratization package, not through conflicts. They should underline that it is the lack of settlement as advocated by the MHP and the CHP that will divide the country.
According to the results of a recent poll conducted by the polling company MetroPOLL, a majority of people support the democratic initiative process. According to the poll, conducted at a time when heated debates were being held concerning the Kurdish initiative, 31.6 percent of people fully support the process while 21.3 percent only partially do. Based on these figures, we can say that total support for the democratic initiative stands at about 53 percent.
While this figure may give the impression that the society is polarized with respect to the initiative, it is not possible to say that this perception is true. In the final analysis, a rate exceeding 50 percent is considerably positive given the fact that Kurds correspond to roughly 15-16 percent of the country's population. Meanwhile, the group making up the 43.8 percent who do not support the process are a big mass of people that the government and the architects of the process must convince.
Of course, it would be naive to expect 100 percent support from the general public for the settlement of the Kurdish issue, which is a hotbed of the terrorism that has for the last 25 years created considerable tragedies for all groups in the society. Every point corresponding to that part of popular support exceeding 15-16 percent, which roughly represents the Kurdish population, is particularly precious. The government is supposed to develop a reasonable discourse that will persuade the skeptics of the process, but it should never be expected to direct the process according to the sensitivities of opponents.
Given the fact that the MHP and the CHP were seized by the most primitive discourses of fascism when there was nothing concrete available about the democratic initiative process and that there was only the declaration of intent for the settlement by the government and some state organs, objections raised by the MHP and CHP will most naturally be perceived as their desire to have "war instead of peace" or "maintain a lack of settlement instead of a resolution."
This primitive stance adopted by the MHP and the CHP, which can be summarized as a "continuation of bloodshed instead of settlement," is luckily not supported much by the general public. According to the MetroPOLL survey, 63.8 percent of the people do not approve of the stance adopted by the CHP and its leader, Deniz Baykal, while 60 percent disapprove of the discourse and policies of the MHP and the its leader, Devlet Bahçeli, who voiced the harshest criticism against the government and the president. Even people who generally vote for these parties do not approve of the positions their parties have recently assumed -- 33.7 percent for the CHP and 21.8 percent for the MHP.
As one might guess, the biggest support for the democratization initiative intending to solve the Kurdish issue comes from the voters of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), with 95.2 percent. The DTP is followed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) with 64.5 percent. On the other hand, the biggest opposition to the initiative comes unsurprisingly from the supports of the MHP and the CHP, with 67.2 percent and 59.4 percent, respectively. However, it is interesting that 37.6 percent of the CHP's supporters and 31 percent of the MHP's supporters have said that they partially or completely support the initiative.
It is generally accepted by political analysts that the main intention of the CHP and the MHP in harshly opposing the settlement of the Kurdish issue, which has grown gangrenous and has adversely affected the lives of everyone in this country, be they Turks or Kurds, is to increase their electoral support in the upcoming elections. In the face of these parties, which have grown so despicable as to pursue political benefits over bloodshed, the AK Party should not show weakness, but rather continue to act resolutely at the highest level.
In the final analysis, there is a big group of people who find the AK Party's settlement initiative a sincere effort, and it is very likely that these people will become AK Party supporters if the initiative is successful. A full 73 percent of the DTP's supporters and 60 percent of the Felicity Party (SP) base consider the AK Party sincere with respect to settlement. There are even people among the supporters of the CHP and the MHP who do not doubt the frankness of the ruling party -- 18 percent and 22 percent, respectively.
If the AK Party does not yield to the opposition's demands and does not weaken the will to settle the Kurdish issue, it will bring about considerable gains both for itself and for the country.
