Kurdish issue: Turkey is determined

If we content ourselves with more recent history, are there still not open wounds from the break-up of the empire? They have only been plastered over but never given a chance to heal. Maybe that is because our decision makers who hold executive power never found an opportunity to properly address the regional, natural and historical problems on a long-term and factual basis, with proper considerations. After the empire, serious Kurdish revolts occurred in the 1920s and ‘30s, and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk eliminated them. Indeed, modern Turkey never accepted the Kurdish ethnic minority as a notion within minority rights.

In 1921, modern Turkey’s first constitution included Kurds just like all others within the country. As the years went by and modern Turkey grew up, the issue was transformed by a variety of factors: political, demographic, economic, identity-related and geopolitical. But people’s background, cultural identity, fundamental needs and legitimate aspirations have not been determined or even looked at. Large numbers of Kurds have emigrated to elsewhere in the world and others stayed. The émigré Kurds formed a diaspora. Those who stayed behind sought their rights and freedoms, but their activities led to the insurgency that is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). After the profound trauma of detachment, Kurds seeking their rights and freedoms has led to the accumulation of profound problems throughout the years of modern Turkey. This matter evolved and formed Turkey’s Kurdish issue. While the diaspora has supported and financed Kurdish nationalist activity, which promotes the Kurdish issue, the insurgency within the boundaries of Turkey has become Turkey’s weakest point.

Day by day, the “Kurdish issue” evolved into Turkey’s most complicated and painful question, one that has to be handled within Turkey’s political, economic, sociological, security and even psychological limits. Since the 1980s, the most pronounced statement, “the war in the Southeast” against the PKK, has left more than 35,000 dead and affected many hundreds of thousands, even with the large-scale Turkish military fight against the PKK. In the 1980s, the Turkish state conducted policies which led to the perception that the Kurdish issue is the PKK insurrection. And the people holding executive powers thought that if the PKK is eliminated, the question will no longer be. This approach made the question much more confusing and even more difficult because those suffering as a result of the issue cannot explain themselves properly.

A notable transformation in 1980

However, the issue transformed as Turkey transformed. In the 1980s, during the era of the eighth president of Turkey, Turgut Özal, there was a notable transformation with respect to years before Özal. He differed from others and was of the view that economic development would ultimately resolve the question. Neither before him nor after was any Turkish government likely to take on Özal’s approach publicly, except for the Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

Following Özal, the AK Party re-explored a fundamental requirement: greater democracy and openness in Turkey, a direction that in any case would serve Turkey’s ultimate interests and world vision via the ruling party’s democratic initiative. Many of the ideas had been voiced before, but only now have they been put together in the form of a solution package. After the initiative was announced, all agreed that “the issue” requires an atmosphere of calm among and between Turks and Kurds. With public discussion of the Kurdish issue significantly more common in Turkey as a result of the initiative, many Turks’ fear of a Kurdish state being carved out has diminished. The initiative also preserved the Kurds’ honor. That is to say, before the initiative was announced, the fear of a Kurdish state being established was one of the top fears harbored by Turks, while the Kurds felt their honor threatened.

When the government’s democratic opening got started, Turkey’s foreign policymakers remembered that Turkey has great potential in its region and great leverage in the world. They saw the Kurdish issue as an obstacle to Turkey’s aspirations. They believed the issue feeds Turkey’s turbulence like a thunderstorm when Turkey’s international relations are at a historic crossroads. Furthermore, the issue and Turkey’s regional aspirations are interrelated with one another.

The convulsive movements of the PKK will encumber this transformation. But as Victor Hugo put it, “No one can resist an idea whose time has come.” After the democratic initiative, Turkey showed its strong determination to overcome the obstacles in the way of solving regional and internal problems.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ conducted a land inspection of the latest PKK attacks on an army border unit in Gediktepe, Hakkari province, last month. That was unique and sent a strong message that Turkey is determined to do what it must with regard to regional and domestic security.

*Yusuf Ergen is a political analyst based in Ankara.