The timing of these events is interesting. We have a government which is trying to push forward the Kurdish initiative. This initiative is essential to the success of Turkey’s democratization, and it’s also of crucial importance due to the new situation in Iraq, and especially in northern Iraq. It intends to bring a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue and thus necessitates a change in the state’s traditions, a transformation in the government which has launched this initiative and the adoption, by the Kurds themselves, of democratic principles. The Ergenekon case is the most striking indicator of the efforts to correct the authoritarian-militaristic traditions of the state. Three former top commanders had to testify before Ergenekon prosecutors and, at the same time, people all over the country had to watch PKK-related demonstrations. There are definitely some groups which fear that the state might renounce the use of violent methods; they are aware that if the state changes, they will have to change, too. On the other hand, these incidents provide a good argument for those who claim that the government is zealously attacking the army. As they accuse the government of damaging the armed forces, which happens to be the most solid defense against terror, they implicitly say that the government is on the verge of committing treason, which makes every step of the latter suspicious.The Kurdish initiative is also closely linked to developments in Iraq. The Iraqi parliament’s discussions about the new electoral law coincided with protests in Turkey and US President Obama’s announcement about the need for additional forces in Afghanistan. At the same time, NATO was holding a summit in Brussels during which allies were briefed on three critical topics: Iran’s nuclear issue, the transfer of Iraq to the Iraqis by establishing institutions to provide stability and to do the same in Afghanistan within two years from now. The US president therefore announces that his ultimate goal cannot be reached solely by military means and that he intends to reduce the number of his troops in Iraq to deploy them more effectively in Afghanistan. Even if the warmonger neocons remark with irony that Obama has started to look like Bush, it is a fact that the US is trying to apply a policy of transferring power to the local players.
However, the will of the people is often taken hostage by those who benefit from violent policies. Policies based on violence, terror and nuclear weapons help authoritarian leaders to justify their rules and lead them to qualify all foreign actors as enemies: for the PKK, the state and the government are enemies; for Iran, the US; for Iraq, the US and Iran. In order to justify their intransigent stances against the “enemies,” these leaders use frequent provocations in order to attract retaliation. This violent ambiance intends to make the governments fail in its democratization projects. In the Middle-Eastern context, this ill intention is particularly oriented towards Obama and Erdoğan, who have decided to consult each other. The timing of the escalation of violence is closely related to Erdoğan’s Washington visit, but some people aren’t aware that, by their actions, they are stimulating the US and Turkey’s rapprochement more than ever.
