The allegation that served as the basis for the decision to close the party was that it had become a “focal point of activities that were against the country and the state’s indivisible unity.” However, it is evident that the link between the DTP and terrorism and violence played a greater role in the formation of the decision than “division and separatism.”In the statement he made after announcing the court’s decision on the closure case against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on July 30, Constitutional Court President Haşim Kılıç said politicians should end the practice of party closures. In his most recent statement, the president said that the DTP was not included in that appeal because of its links to “terrorism and violence.” The decision was adopted unanimously, showing that all 11 members were absolutely convinced that the party should be closed.
While that may be the legal aspect of the decision, the “political aspect” cannot be ignored. Some of the first questions that came to mind immediately after the decisions were: What will the future of the policy being implemented to address the Kurdish problem be? Will the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) take up initiative? Will those who are conducting politics over the problem set up a new party? The attitude DTP supporters will take is of utmost importance.
Hawks within the DTP who were in favor of sternness from the beginning will use the decision to close the party to adopt a harsher and more radical method and one that is closed to dialogue. No lawsuit was filed against a DTP deputy who said, “The base wants us to go to the mountains.” But the heavy punishment of the soft-toned and dialogue-welcoming Ahmet Türk, who always showed that the place to find a solution was in legal politics and under the roof of Parliament, and Aysel Tuğluk, who said, “We need to understand Turks while focusing on the Kurdish problem and consider their fear of division,” was very meaningful.
Türk’s statement after the decision was announced showed once more that he is the most appropriate person to talk to and establish dialogue with. “Hopelessness should not deepen; the problem cannot be solved by closing down a party,” he said and pointed to legal politics in the future.
We cannot say the DTP is completely free from blame. It failed to put a clear distance between itself and the PKK, and it pointed to jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan as the only person who can solve the Kurdish problem as part of the democratic initiative. But the course the democratic initiative will follow from this point on depends on the stance DTP supporters will adopt. Without doubt, there were many people who wanted and expected the DTP to be closed down because it was seen as a factor that would inhibit the democratic initiative. It was not for no reason that one of the highest officials of the government cited Spain’s Batasuna case.
Even if that is the case, I believe goodness and common sense -- in other words, “Türk and Tuğluk’s line” -- will prevail. Kurdish intellectuals and politicians who closely follow developments in Turkey, the region and the world can see that big states have stopped using violence and terrorism as instruments to manipulate the international security system, that there is a deep hatred of violence and terrorism in Turkish society in general, that violence creates the danger of separating Kurds from other ethnic groups psycho-socially and that, most importantly, Kurds have stopped viewing “armed struggle” as a useful method that yields results.
Instruments such as violence, armed struggle, “low intensity conflict” and others make the Kurdish problem worse. The Kurds are also tired. Both the region’s human and economic capital has suffered a deep shock. In short, there is a situation that cannot be sustained much longer both from the perspective of the state and the country, in general, as well as from the perspective of Kurds. The continuation of the status quo means the death of an additional 50,000 people, more killings performed by unknown perpetrators, the wasting of another $300 billion and the continuation of tutelage over civilian politicians by nonpolitical forces. The solution is dialogue, mutual understanding, consolidating the desire to coexist, fostering democratic politics and continuing the democratic initiative that was launched by reconsidering all the mistakes that have been made so far.
