Circumstances facilitating current debate of Kurdish question
by
EMRE USLU*

When Özkök “broke” the three-month-old news and ran a headline that Öcalan was preparing a “roadmap” to address the problem, the “peace” debate dominated the public discourse. In the following days the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government stated that the Ministry of the Interior was working on a comprehensive plan as well.

As a first step, Interior Minister Beşir Atalay held a press conference and outlined how the government was planning to deal with the problem. In the following days Atalay brought together 15 academics and journalists for a discussion titled “The Solution of the Kurdish Problem: Turkish Model Workshop" held at the Police Academy to discuss the issue.

Those who do not monitor the changing dynamics of Turkey were caught by surprise when they realized that the Police Academy was holding a workshop on the Kurdish subject and that the government is preparing a plan to address the problem. To achieve a better understanding I will try to list the changes that have happened since 2000 that made it possible for the AK Party government to take such steps.

Role of Turkish intellectuals

In a normal society when sociopolitical events happen, intellectuals and social scientists try to examine what has been changing and what it means to society and the state structure. However, in Turkey, intellectuals tried not to examine what the Kurdish question was all about because they thought the military and other security institutions would not allow them to study this subject, and, in fact, most of the time they were right. Those who paid attention to society were intentionally excluded from society, and state security institutions labeled them as “separatist” or “traitors.” For instance, during a conference in the US when I met with a professor from Turkey he was surprised that I was looking at the Kurdish question. He stated that it is not easy to study the Kurdish question at Turkish universities. In other words, the precondition of examining the Kurdish question in any Turkish university was to have permission from the Turkish military.

Under these circumstances those who study the Kurdish question either have a biased view toward the subject, have different motivations, i.e., money, or an insufficient background on the subject. Retired military officers particularly become the “experts” on the subject and, unfortunately, because of their insufficient background as social scientists they mislead state institutions. For instance, for a long time they tried to convince society that “outside forces” were behind the Kurdish question to divide Turkey. They sincerely believed in these conspiracy theories.

However, the new generation of intellectuals, most of whom have no affiliation with the military or other security institutions, had opportunities to access the AK Party government and present their projects and studies to the authorities. In addition, under the leadership of Hilmi Özkök and İlker Başbuğ, the Turkish military opened its doors to those intellectuals to listen to their thoughts on the subject, which produced realistic plans that would bring the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to an end. Sedat Laçiner and İhsan Bal from the International Strategic Research Organization (ISRO/USAK), İbrahim Kalın, Taha Özhan and Hatem Ete of the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), Deniz Ülke Arıboğan from Bahçeşehir University, Zühtü Aslan from the Police Academy and other social scientists replaced the “experts” who drove Turkey into this ditch and are now able to talk about more realistic scenarios without political ideology.

Role of Kurdish intellectuals

In the 1990s the PKK undisputedly suppressed Kurdish intellectuals and killed Kurdish debate; today, however, Kurdish intellectuals speak up and even criticize the PKK. Similar to their Turkish counterparts, it was not easy for them to examine the Kurdish question without having permission from the PKK. One of the images that still remain in people's minds was that Kurdish intellectuals, Yaşar Kaya and others, were standing in front of Öcalan like soldiers standing before their commander. Those who criticize Öcalan and others, of course, were labeled “traitors.” Just like their Turkish equivalents, the Kurdish opposition was forced to leave Turkey because of the PKK.

Today, however, we see that there are other Kurdish intellectuals who do not support violence but defend Kurdish cultural rights in a democratic fashion. They provide alternative views that allow us to see the medium of these debates and on which basis we can build our foundation for a possible solution.

Role of media

Unlike the 1990s, today the Turkish media is more colorful than ever. The Internet allows us to disseminate every possible piece of information to a wide variety of media outlets allowing different viewpoints to circulate among the society. Therefore, liberal intellectuals have found new channels of communication to educate people about possible solutions and alternate viewpoints other than those of the traditional “state-sponsored terrorism experts.”

A combination of the three has prepared the social and political environment in which we are able to discuss the Kurdish question without any censorship or interruptions.