Since the political decision to make these reforms, a reality has emerged; Turkey has been witnessing the first-ever open debate on the issue, including extreme views, by Turkish standards, that are still hard for many Turks to stomach.
It is, therefore, not surprising that there have been serious obstacles to the solution due to its decades-long history of bad memories, from state-sponsored assimilation to extrajudicial killings of thousands of Kurds. In addition, thousands of Kurds have been displaced and settled in the suburbs of big cities as part of a 24-year campaign to fight the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), mainly in the country's war-stricken, Kurdish-dominated Southeast. Since the fight against the PKK has been concentrated in the Southeast, where Kurdish citizens are most directly affected by the war, the internalization of the plight of the Kurds for decades, mainly by Turks in the rest of the country, is one of the main factors that complicates and will complicate a solution to the issue.
Added to the problem is the negative stance that has been pursued so far by the two opposition parties on the government's plan to finally solve the Kurdish issue. Statements made by the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), including an accusation of treason leveled against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) as well as against those embracing the government's policy of democratic reforms, show the serious difficulties facing the government and its supporters in standing strong against these ultra-nationalistic approaches.
Turkey's politically powerful armed forces have only recently admitted under their commander, Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ, that the PKK problem cannot be addressed via military means alone, advising politicians to look into ways in which economic and cultural issues can be addressed. But the Turkish military, continuing its interference in politics despite several reforms curbing its political influence, has, at the same time, drawn its red lines that are intended to narrow the civilian authority's room for maneuver in addressing the Kurdish question.
Gen. Başbuğ has attempted to limit the boundaries of freedom of expression during the latest debates on the Kurdish issue. This was followed by a Victory Day military parade on Aug. 30 during which the number of soldiers participating was doubled, sending the message that “we [the military] are there, and no solution can be found without us.”
In addition, the military continued its provocative war-like stance when, on two occasions, senior generals stated that the fight against the terrorist organization will continue until the last terrorist is rendered ineffective.
This negative mood of both the military and the two political parties in particular, who would normally be important players in solving the Kurdish problem, shows us that the government has been facing extremely hard times in this long and highly complicated process.
The most difficult part of the reform process is the fact that the actors in charge of managing the process are under chronic stress and the hardest issue will be those actors' ability to tackle the accusation of treason, says psychiatrist Medaim Yanık in an article published by the Zaman daily on Aug. 26.
Associate Professor Yanık, who worked at Turkey's biggest mental health hospital in Bakırköy, İstanbul, before teaching at İstanbul Şehir University, specialized in political psychology. This discipline, used in helping to find a solution to conflicts is a well-known elsewhere in the world. But many Turks became familiar with this terminology only recently when the government included famous political psychologists such as Professor Vamık Volkan in its list of people and groups to communicate with on the Kurdish question.
If the political authority, in particular, displays a determined stance with the increasing support that has been lent to it by Kurds in general and Turkish intellectuals in particular, the process will continue despite serious ups and downs. Everything depends on the psychological strength of the actors seeking to solve this difficult problem.
