Implementing democratic reforms key to solving Kurdish problem

 On top of that, developments in the final days of 2011 have caused increasing concerns about where Turkey is headed concerning the Kurdish problem as 35 people, civilian villagers mostly aged 15-20, were killed on Dec. 28 by military warplanes because the armed forces mistook them for PKK terrorists, while those people were trying to cross the border to smuggle fuel around the Uludere district of Şırnak province near northern Iraq.

Observers of the Kurdish issue have long been pointing out that it is necessary to fight against terrorism and to eradicate all elements that create terrorism. Thus, implementing democratic reforms is essential, and fighting against terrorism with military means alone would not be enough.

Studies regarding the Turkish government’s tactics in its fight against PKK terrorists show that in the 1980s and 1990s, security-centered policies were prevalent and social, cultural and economic steps were ignored. Moreover, there were several extrajudicial killings in the name of fighting against “terrorism,” and many villages were emptied to cut logistic support for terrorists.

“We have been critical of previous governments’ policies in the past because they were merely focusing on the security aspect of the issue,” said Atilla Sandıklı, head of the İstanbul-based Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies (BİLGESAM). He also said that the need for a multidimensional approach to solving the Kurdish problem has been understood since the early 2000s and that since then some studies have been conducted, but they mostly concentrated on what the problem is rather than how to solve it.

In recent years, some reforms were implemented in regards to granting rights to the Kurdish citizens of the country. In 2009, in an attempt to address the root causes of the problem, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) launched a “democratic opening” process that involved a partial amnesty for PKK members. However, the far-right nationalist opposition party, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), exploited the situation and accused the government of mishandling the process, and ever since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has adopted a much more nationalist political discourse.

Nevertheless, the Kurdish problem has been pressing. Just as there was news in mid-summer that the government was engaging in dialogue through its intelligence services with the leaders of the PKK, the PKK apparently wanted to show that it is alive and well despite some official or unofficial statements that it is about to be “finished.” The PKK intensified attacks in the country’s predominantly Kurdish Southeast with its landmark attack in Diyarbakır’s Silvan district in July of this year, killing 13 soldiers

Prior to the Silvan attack, experts from BİLGESAM had been warning the government that they expect an increase in state security precautions as they think that this aspect has been disregarded in recent times. “Security precautions should be increased in fighting terrorism, but this should be done to capture terrorists, not to hurt them. Plus, all measures -- international cooperation, socio-economic and socio-cultural measures and granting rights and freedoms -- should go hand-in-hand,” Sandıklı said.

Sandıklı, like many other observers, said what is important is implementing measures, not just saying them: “People should feel that their lives are improving as a result of reforms.” Mehmet Emin Aktar, chairman of the Bar Association in Diyarbakır, which is a largely Kurdish province in southeast Turkey, told us about the feeling in the region.

“Even though most people are against PKK violence, detentions of hundreds of people in the context of the KCK operations hurt people because every day they see someone they know or someone who is their neighbor detained,” he said, referring to operations carried out against the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), which prosecutors say is a political umbrella organization that includes the PKK terrorist organization. The police have recently stepped up operations against the KCK. The KCK investigation started in December 2009, and a large number of Kurdish politicians, including several officials from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), have been detained.

The suspects are accused of various crimes, including membership in a terrorist organization, aiding and abetting a terrorist organization and attempting to destroy the country’s unity and territorial integrity. The detainees include mayors and municipal officials from the BDP. BDP officials have stated the investigation is the government’s way of suppressing its politicians, denying any links between the suspects and any terrorist organizations. “Yes, the KCK is an illegal organization, but this environment of arrests and detentions leaves a mark in people’s minds, and they tend to legitimize PKK violence,” Aktar said. He also said the Kurdish people need to feel like they are receiving just and equal treatment in the country. According to him, the “democratic opening” process has been stalled, and the two concrete results of this process have been first, the start of TRT-6 or TRT Şeş, which started its broadcasts on the first day of 2009 airing programs in Kurdish 24 hours a day, and second, the opening of “living language institutes” in some universities that includes education in Kurdish.

“But no measures were implemented to make the lives of people easier in regards to freedom of expression,” he said adding that the catch-all Counterterrorism Law (TMK) must be changed swiftly so that people can speak out without fear.

“The more rights Kurds gain, the more devoid of meaning the PKK will be,” he said.

Kurdish writer and intellectual Ümit Fırat agrees.

“We can always wait to make a new and more democratic constitution that grants more rights and freedoms to everybody. But this is not a short process. There are a lot of things to do before making the new constitution,” he said, referring to efforts to draft a new constitution to replace the military-dictated constitution of 1982, which was adopted after the 1980 military coup.

There is a parliamentary Constitutional Reconciliation Commission (AUK), an ad-hoc commission created in October to draft the new constitution. The ruling AK Party does not have the minimum 330 deputies required to adopt a new constitution alone.

“Even if it had a majority, it would have had to seek a public consensus in the process of rewriting a new constitution. Therefore, it is a long process,” Fırat said.Regarding what laws can be changed to make Turkey more democratic he says that it is no secret:

“The election threshold can be lowered; laws against hate crimes and discrimination can be passed; barriers to the granting of basic rights and freedoms can be removed; a vague definition of terrorism-related crimes can be changed. This would also give people a chance to feel what a difference reforms can make in their lives, so they can be better prepared for a constitutional change,” he said.

Remarks by Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç in Parliament on Dec. 21, where he said, “We will recognize all rights of the Kurds,” as well as a statement by the other deputy prime minister, Beşir Atalay, on Dec. 25 in Kırıkkale in which he said, “We have been working on a democratization package,” have raised expectations for a reform package.

But a revision of the present security-based concept would not be acceptable. Observers of the issue demand democratic reforms to bring what radicals fear most: peace.