It seems that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government wants to remove “the mountain” from being an “option” for Kurds; however, recently revealed Kurdish initiative policies are not enough to bring about such an end. In fact, the Turkish media reported that 30 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants went to the Makhmur camp in northern Iraq, where Turkish-Kurd refugees settled in the early 1990s, to “convince” refugees not to return to Turkey. Even if the PKK lays down its arms, the declared policies cannot provide means of maintaining democracy in the region.The most important remedy against terrorism and ethnic separatism is maintaining democracy in the region; however, existing conditions in the region do not allow democracy to flourish. First, the three major actors -- the state, the PKK and Kurdish Hizbullah and the tribes -- do not allow civil society to thrive in the region.
In nature, ethnic and religious organizations are exclusivist organizations. In the Kurdish region, other than state, ethnic and religious organizations, there is almost no other organization that can contribute to the improvement of democracy. Scholarly studies on democracy found that organizations that have strong ties to the outside community are good for democracy, while those that are isolated don’t help.
For instance, sociologist Pamela Paxton at Ohio State University has stated that “a strong democracy needs organizations whose members are inter-connected, who are a part of the larger community.” According to Paxton’s study, clubs whose members tend to belong to other organizations are more integrated into the overall community. When people belong to more than one club or organization, they bring fresh perspectives. Paxton points out: “When you have members who are connected to other groups everyone hears more sides of a story -- members can counteract extremist positions. This is good for democracy.”
Trade unions, religious groups and sports and recreation groups were the least connected to other groups, the study showed. In other results, Paxton found that the levels of trust people had in their neighbors played a key role in healthy democracies and also affected the impact associations had in society. This suggests that when people don’t trust each other, they also tend to belong to insular, isolated groups that don’t participate in society and don’t contribute to democracy.
When we apply Paxton’s findings in the region, we see that besides trade unions, religious groups, support groups and groups based on opposition, there are no other groups and associations in the Kurdish region. What the government needs to do is to promote a flourishing civil society that can reconnect the region to the western part of the country first and the rest of the world after. This can be done by promoting and establishing private universities, cultural associations, private schools, associations, local newspapers and media outlets that can bring new vision to the region.
In addition to strengthening the institutions that are necessary for democracy, the government should find ways to restore Kurdish peoples’ basic identification with the state and sense of belonging to the nation. One of the most difficult tasks before the state is to restore the Kurdish feeling toward the state because Kurds are mentally divorced from the state. The sense of belonging felt overall by the people of this country and the sense of identification with the democratic state have been heavily damaged during last 30 years. Without such elements, it is very difficult to maintain democratic practices in the region.
Regardless of the government’s positive intention to solve the Kurdish question, the problem in the region is a deeply rooted and structural one. The region needs to be kept under some form of quarantine to limit the state, the PKK and Kurdish Hizbullah’s negative effect on democracy on the one hand and restore the damaged sociopolitical structure to benefit civil society on the other.
