The first station of the solution to the Kurdish problem

Again, understandably, but unacceptably, almost all of the “made-in-newsroom” plans start with the unconditional laying down of arms of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the elimination of violence targeting Turkish citizens. This is unacceptable, because it reduces the Kurdish problem into a security issue and it equates Turkey 's Kurdish problem with Turks and Kurds' common PKK problem.

Any discussion of the Kurdish problem that starts with “how to tackle PKK terrorism” is in essence defamatory and in the end does not lead to an applicable solution strategy. I will exaggerate a bit to clarify my position: Any search for a solution to Turkey 's Kurdish problem that starts with a deliberation on terrorism is analogous to the Americans starting any discussion on the Mexican immigration problem in the US with a swine-flu-first introduction.

It is true that Turkey 's Kurdish problem is one of the reasons why the PKK is still able to attract youngsters from among the Kurdish communities of Turkey . But it is not the only reason. It is true that the PKK problem of the Turks and Kurds (Kurds of all four countries in the region) is adding to the Kurdish problem of Turkey. But it is not the sole determinant of the Kurdish problem; neither is it the largest one.

Turkey 's Kurdish problem has dimensions relating to the Constitution, human rights violations, identity issues, low levels of education, economic backwardness, inequality in employment opportunities and prejudice. The Kurdish request of self-expression is a more immanent (and rightful) issue compared to the request of a tiny minority among them for self-determination. The problem is a human problem with more civilian dimensions than its political or security dimensions. The search for a solution should start with a discussion of what kind of humanistic input we need for the solution, what kind of human resources we need and what civil society can do to bring about a stable solution.

With PKK terrorism in the forefront of the mind, all paths lead to the military.

Reason alone is enough to judge that military operations do not produce any solutions to terrorism. For those suffering from a mental lapse, Turkey, Israel and the US have produced more than enough empirical proof that military operations only add to the passion of the population that supports and harbors the terrorists, enabling them to continue. The immediacy of a terrorist threat, of course, necessitates an immediate response from the security establishment. But this is a suppression of the symptoms, to use medical terminology. This is not a cure.

 The cure is civilian, nongovernmental and, to a certain extent, anti-militarist. The security establishment should be reminded of the red lines of combat operations; the politicians should be reminded of the willingness of society in general to compromise for a stable and mutually acceptable peace; and we need a strong, vivid civil society and nongovernmental organizations that are supported by that civil society, in order to be able to achieve those.

Nongovernmental organizations should be able to act as if there is no PKK terrorism at all. That will help the politicians to be more courageous, the army to leave more space to non-military encounters and the journalists to go deep into society and give up the habit of sketching “plans to save the country.”

With the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) of northern Iraq, the government can talk about how to deal with the PKK threat; the first station of the solution for Turkey's Kurdish problem is the house of the poor grandmother from Mardin, who, after the recent feud massacre, is left in the position of having to take care of nine orphaned grandchildren and houses alike…