21 October 2009 / STAR ERGUN BABAHAN,
If today in Turkey members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) are actually descending from the mountains and surrendering their weapons, this is thanks to the resolute and consistent will of civilians in this nation.
And in fact it has been this resolute civilian volition present in Turkey -- a volition which has successfully chosen to view politics and relations not from the perspective of “friend-enemy,” but as webs of problems that call for solutions -- which has, with the support of international actors, brought violence to a stopping point in Turkey. Yesterday we witnessed history in the making in Turkey, as PKK members gave themselves up. The first step towards completely silencing the sounds of gunfire was taken. And neither the Democratic Society Party's (DTP) attempts to turn this all into a show nor the state's assertions that “they were at the end of the road anyway, they are turning themselves in,” should be paid attention to. The right thing here is for everyone to finally understand that violence never leads to solutions.
