Kurdish people tired of street violence

Although unrest and demonstrations broke out in predominantly Kurdish areas on Monday, the 11th anniversary of the capture of terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is serving a life sentence on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara, the level of violence was not high compared to previous years, and the events were limited to certain parts of some cities.

Security forces have been conducting operations throughout Turkey in the run-up to the anniversary of Öcalan’s capture in Kenya in 1999. Many people were detained, particularly in predominantly Kurdish areas. These security operations, according to experts, were also helpful in achieving a relatively calm atmosphere.

“It depends on how you describe the ‘relatively calm’ situation and what your reference points are, but we can say that the KCK [Kurdish Communities Union] operations for the time being seem to have contributed to security,” strategy analyst Nihat Ali Özcan told Today’s Zaman.

The security forces organized operations against the KCK, which is allegedly the urban wing of the PKK. In several waves of operations, around 900 people were detained or arrested, among them some mayors and administrators from pro-Kurdish political parties.

Demonstrations to mark the 11th anniversary of Abdullah Öcalan’s arrest were less violent than similar protests in years past.

Last week the security forces also carried out pre-emptive detentions. Among the detainees were members and supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). The BDP issued a written statement over the weekend in protest of the recent detentions and urged the public to react against them. BDP co-chairpersons Gülten Kışanak and Selahattin Demirtaş underlined in the statement that the recent detentions were similar in character to those that took place following the country’s military coups.

“We urge our people to protect their honor in city squares both to show our unity and also to protest against the Feb. 15 international conspiracy,” the statement underlined.

In pro-Kurdish politics, the Feb. 15 international conspiracy is a euphemism for the capture of Öcalan. But despite this encouragement, the demonstrations did not escalate, and there were no major problems.

“The people of Diyarbakır adopted a wait and see policy. They want to see what the actors are doing. They aren’t enthusiastic about taking to the streets,” Emin Aktar, chairman of Diyarbakır Bar Association, told Today’s Zaman.

His view is shared by Şah İsmail Bedirhanoğlu, chairman of the Southeastern Anatolia Industrialist and Businessmen Association (GÜNSİAD).

“I think people are fed up with violence in the street. It does not mean that they have given up their identity and cultural demands, but what I have observed is that every year people are getting increasingly tired of this,” he told Today’s Zaman.

He underlined that shopkeepers closed their shops in the poor neighborhoods and in the city center, which is the scene of public unrest, but in most other neighborhoods, the shops were open.

He added that the attitude of the security forces when they were intervening in the demonstrations was not provocative and this was helpful in ensuring the relatively calm atmosphere.

In Cizre the police made announcements in Kurdish for families whose children were participating in the demonstrations telling them not to let their children out onto the streets. Dozens of children were, however, detained in other cities.

But this relatively calm situation does not mean that the end of violence is approaching. Emre Uslu, a columnist for Today’s Zaman, noted that the PKK will use proxies to terrorize society this time. Among the proxies are the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), who threatened to target the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) offices in the Southeast.

“The PKK calculates that the government will see that the PKK could be a reasonable organization to negotiate with. If not, the government could potentially face more radical organizations like the TAK,” Uslu claimed in one of his recent columns.