Since the launch of a government-initiated Kurdish initiative last summer to resolve the Kurdish and terrorism problems, there has been an ongoing debate about what kind of measures could be taken to urge the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging a war in Turkey’s Southeast since 1984, to lay down its weapons. Among other things, analysts say it is inevitable for Turkey to take the general amnesty issue to its agenda if it wants to eliminate the terrorist organization, as other countries fighting terrorist organizations have achieved a permanent peace this way.Milliyet’s Aslı Aydıntaşbaş says that although a general amnesty may sound unlikely now, it is an issue that Turkey will have to bring to its agenda sooner or later. “Nobody should get me wrong. This is not solely my thesis. Everyone who knows a little bit about the Kurdish problem and realities in the streets of Turkey’s Southeast, from the CHP to the General Staff, the Justice and Development Party [AK Party] and the police, is aware that there is no solution other than a broad-based social peace,” she explains. In her view, it is not possible for an organization like the PKK, which enjoys extensive grassroots support, to disappear suddenly through a method other than a “general amnesty” and reconciliation in the long run. “There is no example of this in the world. In the military history of the world, you cannot find an example of a terrorist organization that was eliminated through military means only. A reconciliation is certainly needed. So, Turkey will now or a decade later, willingly or obligatorily, start discussing the general amnesty issue. And we will be discussing this not because we will wake up as PKK supporters one day but to protect our social integrity,” contends Aydıntaşbaş.
Admitting that there has not yet any sufficient progress made in the government’s Kurdish initiative, Bugün’s Erhan Başyurt says a general amnesty will certainly come to Turkey’s agenda during the complete elimination of the PKK. He shows countries such as South Africa, Ireland, Sudan, Indonesia and Niger as examples where a permanent peace was achieved through a general amnesty for the members of terror organizations that were active in those countries. “It seems that a demand for a general amnesty will come to Turkey’s agenda sooner or later. Everyone with a conscience can see this,” suggests Başyurt.
Describing the general amnesty as “a very sensitive and dangerous” issue, Vatan’s Ruşen Çakır also agrees that Turkey will have to handle this issue sooner or later if it wants to resolve the Kurdish problem. “If a solution is not desired, then there is nothing to say,” adds Çakır.
