Kurdish initiative tests tide to change status quo in Turkey

Maybe it is best explained in a mother's cry: “I have been counting the days, yearning for my daughter. I have felt the same pain for the mother of a soldier and for the mother of a guerilla. I don't want to see mothers cry anymore.”

These sentences belong to Mahiye Aşar, from the eastern province of Van, which has suffered its share from the Kurdish conflict in Turkey that has cost the lives of about 40,000 people since 1984. She was talking about her daughter, who joined the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) 19 years ago.

“My son-in-law's family was revolutionary. They faced a lot of pressure in the 1990s. Their home was raided by security forces every day. My daughter's husband would be arrested and tortured. They could not take it anymore and they went up to the mountains. I have not seen my daughter since. She has a son raised by his grandparents,” Aşar told journalists.

This was until last week, when she saw her daughter on television, coming home from northern Iraq as part of a group of 34 people associated with the PKK.

“I would like to see an end to the bloodshed. I am thankful to everyone who contributed to this peace process,” Aşar said. As the Turkish government prepares to unveil measures to expand democratic rights and freedoms for all citizens of the country, eight PKK members returned to Turkey from the Kandil Mountains, where the PKK has a camp, and 26 came back from Makhmur, a refugee camp in northern Iraq.

Talking about this milestone on the way to a new Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan noted in his Thursday address that Turkey is going through a historic process. “The Turkish government is removing obstacles impeding Turkey's progress one after another,” he said.

The teary-eyed prime minister paused while he recited verses from renowned poet Cemal Süreya’s poem: “Has your father ever died?/ Mine did once I became blind/ They washed him and took away/ I wouldn’t expect it from my father I became blind.”

It was considered a huge symbolic breakthrough when Erdoğan admitted in 2005 that Turkey had a “Kurdish problem.” Before that, politicians referred to the issue as “the Southeast problem” or “problems of identity.”

To the cheers of crowds in Diyarbakır, Erdoğan had described the situation as “my problem, our collective problem.”

Kurdish issue Turkey’s ‘primary problem’

In the general elections of July 2007, Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) won more than 50 percent of the vote in Kurdish-dominated areas, much to the chagrin of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), which is seen as the main representative of Kurds. Analysts at the time said Erdoğan was able to create the hope of further reform, but although there was much talk about “initiatives” and “financial packages” to cure the problems of the Southeast, there were no bold moves to produce politics on the way to a new social contract.

Meanwhile, the government survived military interference and a closure case. Furthermore, the Ergenekon investigation has brought to light the interference of non-elected underground forces in politics.

The March 29, 2009, local election results showed the DTP had a larger share of the vote than the AK Party in 10 provinces. In a comprehensive analysis, political scientist and academic Ali Çarkoğlu noted that the DTP also managed to pull together an impressive increase in its support compared to the 2004 local elections.

Following those wake-up calls, some taboos have been broken. The establishment of TRT 6, Turkish Radio and Television Corporation’s (TRT) Kurdish station, was one of them. Then came the decision of the Higher Education Board (YÖK) to establish Kurdish language departments at universities. Although it was far from recognizing a person’s right to be educated in his or her mother’s tongue, the decision has been received generally well as it had symbolic importance within the framework of the democratic initiative of the government.

In the larger view, the government and the military seemed to have an agreement on a solution to the Kurdish issue for the first time after many years. This summer, President Abdullah Gül declared that the long-standing Kurdish issue is Turkey’s “primary problem” and should be solved.

Rocky road to change

However, the road ahead to a changed Turkey is still long.

The opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leaders’ views sharply contrast with the words of the prime minister and president. They said the return and release of the PKK members was part of a plot that is aimed at legitimizing the terrorist group. Both opposition leaders continue to label every step toward settlement as treason.

On top of that, a new controversy has dominated the already tense atmosphere between the government and opposition as the DTP and its supporters continued to celebrate the return of the PKK members to Turkey. The group toured several Southeastern cities in a DTP bus and saluted thousands of Kurdish citizens all through last week. When the bus reached the Kurdish stronghold of Diyarbakır, around 100,000 Kurds were waiting to celebrate.

Despite the fact that top officials from the government made calls for “common sense” in addition to calling on the DTP to refrain from any act that could sabotage the ongoing peace process, CHP leader Deniz Baykal slammed the government.

“When terrorists become heroes, the mothers and fathers of martyrs watch the affair with great suffering. They might say, ‘I should have sent my children to the PKK instead of the military, and then they would be coming back as heroes’,” he said.

In a strongly worded column on Thursday, Hasan Cemal stated that the opposition is not “responsible” and “constructive” but “a big disappointment.” He asked whether or not the opposition is nourished by “blood.”

However, Baykal was not alone. The Association of Social Solidarity for Families of Martyrs and Victims of Terror called a press conference on Wednesday to voice their criticism of the enthusiastic welcome of the group of PKK members who surrendered to Turkish security forces.

On the other hand, the DTP said the Kurdish public was overjoyed with the developments on the way to peace and that people were merely celebrating the ray of hope for the future on the horizon for the first time following so many years of terrorism.

‘This is not a choreographed play’

In any process like this, there will be good and bad days, said Henri Barkey, an American scholar who in February published a paper titled “Preventing Conflict Over Kurdistan” with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, based in Washington, D.C.

“This is not a choreographed play and there are no actors who know what to do. They are human beings and they react emotionally. This is part and parcel of the process. It is normal to have ups and downs,” Barkey told Sunday’s Zaman.

In addition, analysts say some steps taken by the government have created existential fears, like losing territory.

“This is a conflict resolution process and the management of it should be skillful. The government should defuse fears,” said Nilüfer Narlı, head of the sociology department at Bahçeşehir University.

Speaking to Sunday’s Zaman, she said the government should be transparent and inform the public more about the initiative. Otherwise, she added, fears may grow because the “Sèvres syndrome” is “very much alive.”

She was referring to the widespread conviction among the Turkish elites and military that Turkey is surrounded by enemies intent on dividing up the country, as was done in the Treaty of Sèvres, which was imposed on the Ottoman government by the victorious Western powers at the end of World War I. The treaty had provided for the establishment of Armenian and Kurdish states in Anatolia, was signed in 1920 and was never put into effect as it was rejected by the national liberation movement, whose success led to its replacement by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.

‘No turning back’

Professor Narlı also indicated that in Turkey, the security culture was focused on threats to the national state as the country was focusing on the size of armies and type of weapons owned by hostile states.

“First of all, there is a change in the security culture in Turkey. Now the focus is on human security. The evolution of a new security culture is about democratic control of the armed forces,” she added.

EU harmonization reforms created a change in the mindsets of citizens, increasing the number of people who think that security concerns not only the armed forces but also people, who should have more voice in discussing national security issues, argues Narlı.

Reforms related to harmonization with the European Union, she said, led to breaking of taboos and brought about a security concept which sees human beings at the center of security policies.

Kurdish author and activist Orhan Miroğlu told Sunday’s Zaman that there will be resistance to the process but that there is no turning back.

“The Kurdish problem is going to be solved on a political and democratic ground as both sides leave violence behind. This is what the process is about. The fact that things will never be same in Turkey following the entrance of the groups from Habur is now clear,” he said.

When it comes to a new emerging Turkey and a state which embraces its citizens rather than dismisses the ones who are “different” than the official description of a citizen, Miroğlu said there are signs of change in that regard. He said that the prime minister is emphasizing the ethnic richness of Turkey in almost every speech he makes recently, in addition to stressing the importance of being “a citizen of the Turkish Republic” rather than “being a Turk.”

“The prime minister recalls the common denominator, which is citizenship in the Turkish Republic. He calls on everybody to respect differences. We know that was not the case not long ago,” he said.

According to Miroğlu, it is not only the state but the AK Party which is going through a change.

“If you intend to change society, then you have to change yourself in accordance with this assertion. This is what the opposition is not able to do.”

Now all eyes are on the government for more comprehensive reforms, as analysts agree that Turkey has never been so close to a solution to the Kurdish issue and each new step forward will further strengthen the government’s hand.