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Independent commission: Öcalan, PKK not legitimate
“The PKK itself, and its jailed leader Öcalan do not constitute a legitimate political party, and they have committed too many terrorist acts to have a legalized future in Turkey,” the report “Turkey in Europe: Breaking the Vicious Circle,” prepared by former heads of state and government, foreign ministers and European commissioners and other Europeans who have previously held high positions in public office, said.
“With about 5,000 armed militants, perhaps half of them in Turkey and half in remote mountainous areas of northern Iraq, the PKK pursues an agenda of national liberation. But it uses terrorist and criminal methods, including extortion, drug-running, attacks on conscript manned outposts and bombings of civilians and European tourists inside Turkey,” the report also stated.
The report had eight chapters, including one on “the Kurdish problem.” It stated that it is not easy to say who represents Turkey's Kurdish citizens as Kurds in mainstream Turkish parties already make up about one-sixth of Parliament and the Cabinet.
“The Kurdish nationalist party, the Democratic Society Party [DTP], seems to command about half of the vote in Kurdish-majority areas. Its legitimacy in the eyes of many Turks is however compromised by the fact that its leaders voice sympathy for the PKK, officially labeled as a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and many others.”
The report also noted that “the DTP has been the subject of a court case to close it down since 2007, charged with organizational links to the PKK and because some of its demands for autonomy are perceived as an attack on the constitutional unity of the country.”
‘DTP part of Turkey’s political culture’
“Nevertheless, the DTP is fully part of Turkey's political culture. Many of its demands for more Kurdish rights and respect for the Kurdish identity are also privately made by leading Kurdish parliamentarians in the [ruling Justice and Development Party] AKP and other parties. The possible banning of the DTP by the Constitutional Court is unlikely to contribute to the solution of the Kurdish problem,” stated the report of the Independent Commission on Turkey, established in March and chaired by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
The section also noted that the AK Party has done more to improve the situation of Kurds than any previous government. But it stated that more has to be done to recognize the full use of the Kurdish language and identity of the Kurdish citizens in Turkey.
In its first report, “Turkey in Europe: More than a Promise?” published in September 2004, the independent commission examined the long history of Turkey's convergence with Europe as well as the major opportunities and challenges connected with Turkey's possible EU membership. Its conclusion said that accession negotiations should be opened without delay upon fulfillment by Turkey of the Copenhagen criteria. Then the commission welcomed the European Council decision in December 2004 to open accession negotiations with Turkey and the start of talks in October 2005.
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