Bülent Arınç, the deputy prime minister, thinks the same way. “Why now?” he asked about the timing and added: “No terrorist organization has claimed responsibility so far. The perpetrators must be hiding somewhere. As deputy prime minister I stress that they will be caught soon.” Arınç said he believed it might be an “outsourced” act of terrorism. Democratic Society Party (DTP) sources say they do not believe the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was involved.
Their suspicion added to the speculation that “dark forces” were behind the event. Given the circumstances of the constant testing of Turkey's democratization, they might be proven right because this looked as if it could be one of those cases that should leave any experienced journalist's stomach uneasy. In such cases, one can suspect anything and be prepared for all sorts of surprises and unsolved puzzles.
Then late yesterday came an announcement: A group called the People's Defense Forces (HPG), allegedly linked to the PKK, took responsibility for the attack, the Fırat news agency reported. Emre Uslu was right when he pointed out the “PKK option” in his analysis published yesterday by this paper: “The PKK has neither claimed responsibility nor denied its involvement in the attack. This leads us to put the PKK at the top of our list of suspects because, from time to time, we have seen the PKK remain silent when its members have ambushed military convoys or killed civilians. For instance, the PKK did not immediately claim responsibility when its members detonated a bomb in Diyarbakır killing five civilians and wounding 70 in January, 2008. Similarly, despite its self-declared ceasefire, a few hours before Gen. İlker Başbuğ's press conference in 2008, the PKK ambushed a military convoy in Lice, killing nine soldiers but they did not claim responsibility. A few months later, Murat Karayılan acknowledged that it was members of the PKK who had been behind the killings of civilians in Diyarbakır. Karayılan also admitted that PKK militants were responsible for the Lice attack and stated that it had not been a centrally organized attack. This background on the PKK gives us an incentive to believe that the terrorist attack in Tokat could be the work of the terrorist PKK organization, but not one centrally planned by the top PKK leaders in northern Iraq.”
If proven true, this declaration changes the perspectives of suspicion, and will have some consequences in politics.
First of all, it proves that the PKK has now burned its bridges concerning any hope of further negotiations, even distant and indirect, with Ankara. It means that the process, led by the government, will have to enter a new phase.
A relapse, possibly? It is apparent that the announcement is aimed at escalation with the security forces, provoking a massive military operation, but is also meant to increase the already existent polarity, opening wider the gap of rage between Turks and Kurds.
It signals, too, that there is now a path open for any rural or urban group, closely or loosely connected to the PKK, to take the issue into its own hands and launch arbitrary attacks.
It is an open declaration of confrontation with the security forces, which will sorely test the patience of the government and the institutions that cooperate with it.
The primary goal of the government now should be to keep calm, and not to fall into the trap of giving up an invaluable process of reform. The Irish experience has shown, for instance, that there can be dramatic acts and setbacks to kill such democratic actions towards reconciliation, and they take time. Patience, coupled with resolve and keen intelligence gathering will have to be key from now on. This is the lesson of the incident in Reşadiye, Tokat.
And a final question: What will be the reaction of the DTP, now that the PKK says it is responsible?
