A farewell to arms

Yes, but what to do with the weapons?

How to say goodbye to arms?

It is a question that is addressed, or will be addressed, these days.

For some, it is an obligation. For others, it is more difficult.

In recent days, some activity has been noted at Çubuklu pier, slightly north of the Bosporus Strait. It was triggered after fishermen detected some munitions in the water. It led to a call for help; divers did their search and found bombs and bullets just off the pier at Çubuklu, not far from the diving school affiliated with the navy.

Lately, discoveries of abandoned munitions left here and there indicate that the desperation among the elements within the “deep state,” which obviously feel they are without “protection” and are frightened, particularly by the Ergenekon investigation, is so high that it leads to drastic steps to get rid of the arsenals some people are empowered with.

The Ergenekon context is obvious. It has made clear that people who were given the power to hide and eventually use weapons for “patriotic” purposes have been led to believe that they have to abandon them. They have gotten the message; they do. They are scared.

Because times are different.

Somehow, it looks easier that people linked with the Ergenekon case are easier to deal with than those with a “holier” cause. Loyalties with the “deep state” weigh less than those with the separatist cause because the political investments in it involve life and death.

How will the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) be persuaded to lay down its weapons permanently? In what way could the PKK be persuaded to stop the violence?

It will be a difficult story, despite the fact that Erdoğan sounds lately as if he is preparing for a new move to resolve the Kurdish issue, as it has been labeled the major problem by President Abdullah Gül, signaling new steps that the use of Kurdish in prisons will be allowed.

President Gül, obviously, sounds much more determined than his former party colleagues, such as Cemil Çiçek, the spokesperson for the government.

A farewell to arms can be a timely pattern, although a tricky one. As it may be an inevitable way out for the rogue members of the Ergenekon-related network, the PKK-related activity will have to demand a versatile work pattern.

Following the messages conveyed by the top “commander” of the PKK, Murat Karayılan, it has become clear that a “negotiation” (for peace) with the Turkish state is seen as necessary. He had told columnist Hasan Cemal that the PKK would have no objection if a situation for negotiation was created.

Still, one will have to deal with the need for a negotiation. The state has been brought to the point of a decision, but not to the point of making one. Will it deal with a confrontation with the PKK? Hardly. Not directly. Yet, it feels rather inevitable that a dialogue is necessary in today’s atmosphere.

Karayılan had suggested that the state should talk to PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, or the Democratic Society Party (DTP) leadership or a committee of wise men. The latter alternative is dismissed by the very man pointed out by Karayılan himself. So, two more alternatives remain. Would the Turkish government talk to Öcalan or the DTP?

Probably not. Simply because it will have to have some other tricks before it is too late. As the US troops start threatening the PKK units in the Kandil Mountains, which from first reports looks like a siege, Erdoğan suggests an enhancement to the cultural rights of Kurds.

But two points are clear, even judged by the latest efforts: Both sides will be respectful of each other. Ankara is to take seriously -- also Deniz Baykal, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader -- that an amnesty is urgent and that a lasting cease-fire with a pledge of laying down of arms is necessary.