Kurdish civil society calls on outlawed PKK to stop violence

NGOs, numbering around 100, came together in Diyarbakır yesterday to issue a declaration, calling on the PKK to “de-escalate the situation,” a term used to advise the organization to stop attacks on Turkish targets including military ones. The statement also urged the government to keep working on the democratization initiative it launched last year to expand the rights of Kurdish citizens.

Galip Ensarioğlu, the chairman of the Diyarbakır Trade and Industry Chamber (DTSO), read the declaration on behalf of the civil society organizations of the city and urged the public to act with common sense. 

Before reading the declaration, Ensarioğlu denied reports claiming that the PKK threatened the NGOs and told them not to issue a statement urging the terror group to halt its violence. “The allegations of threats are not true,” he said, adding that “even if that happens, we will not hesitate to state our goals.”

The short declaration points out the reasons for the current violence, which has claimed many lives both in direct armed conflict between the PKK and the army and other violence that resulted in a terrorist bombing in İstanbul's Halkalı neighborhood last week in which six citizens including a 17-year-old girl lost their lives.

According to the declaration, it was noted with regret that a variety of amendments that would have increased society's confidence were not able to be enacted in Parliament in time.

“In order to discuss all aspects of the Kurdish question in a free environment, there is a need for new regulations in the field of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. There is a need for amending the Elections Law. The recent constitutional reform package did not include any regulations to ease the solution of the Kurdish question. Human rights defenders and children are arrested.

All these developments led to an invitation for the emergence of a violent atmosphere and speaking with guns,” the declaration pointed out.

It also stated the reasons the civil society organizations had urged the government to stop all kinds of operations and asked to PKK to “de-escalate the situation.”

The declaration did not explain what it meant by “all kinds of operations,” but many Kurdish intellectuals underlined that the recent security operations against the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), allegedly an urban extension of the PKK, harmed the government’s democratization process that was launched to address the decades-old Kurdish question in Turkey.

During these operations, which are called the KCK operations, more than 1,400 members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy (BDP), including 12 elected mayors, have been arrested, and recently an indictment against those arrested was accepted by a court.

The civil society organizations also urged the PKK to return to a position of de-escalation, which does not necessarily mean a cease-fire or laying down arms. Rather it means that the PKK should refrain from acts that might lead to a direct armed conflict or not to attack, but if there are any security operations against the PKK, it can respond. Another step towards a de-escalation of violence is a cease-fire in which it withdraws its armed men. But the PKK has never laid down arms in its history.

Civil society organizations also urged the government to get involved with “all the dynamics that can play an active role in the solution.” The declaration did not say what these dynamics are, but for many experts it means the PKK and its leader, who is serving a life prison term on Imralı Island in the Marmara Sea.

Conservative Kurdish intellectual Altan Tan, who is not a signatory to the declaration since he is not a representative of a civil society organization, said the government during its democratization initiative was not able to understand that there are many groups involved with the Kurdish question, such as liberal intellectuals, Kurdish intellectuals who are putting distance between themselves and pro-Kurdish politics, and Kurds who are thinking with Islamic references.

“We asked the government to involve these groups as well. We told them not to implement the democratization initiative only with academics. They also need to separate the Kurdish question and the PKK problem,” he said, while explaining to Today’s Zaman what “all the dynamics” might mean.

He added that once the PKK and the Kurdish question are successfully separated, the interlocutor for laying down arms should be the PKK.

Altan added that the declaration in general is positive and balanced because it increases its demands for both the PKK and the government.

The declaration of the civil society organizations also urged the government, opposition parties and all state institutions to show the “necessary political will” in order to prepare a constitutional basis for the solution.

The declaration also invited all these institutions “to abandon the attitude that neglects all the relevant sides and all dynamics.”

According to Sedat Laçiner from the International Strategic Research Organization (USAK), the statement did not meet the general public’s expectations.

“They are using words that are reminiscent of the PKK discourse. They are using the same language as the terrorist organization,” he told Today’s Zaman.

Laçiner added that the government took great risks with the democratization initiative and engaged in a fight with gangs within the state but that Kurds in general were not able to criticize the PKK.

“They are forgetting that there is nothing on the ground that can be used to legitimize the violence. If they only want democratic autonomy as they claim, there is no reason to keep thousands of armed men in the mountains. Also, all these reasons they mentioned in the declaration for the escalation of the situation are not good enough to explain the reasons for the conflict,” he said.

But Hatem Ete from the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) pointed out that only this declaration stated that the democratization initiative was successful in one of its goals, which is to create a free atmosphere of discussion.

“The democratization initiative ensured the involvement of civil society. Before it, the problem was only discussed within the limited framework of the dimension of security. I strongly believe that the free atmosphere of discussion that we now have will positively contribute to the solution,” Ete told Today’s Zaman.