Kurdish issue will be solved by Turks’ collective conscience

The propaganda being spread among Turks, who seemingly agree with it, intends to create such a perception: "Kurds are not being discriminated against. They can even become the president. They can become ministers and deputies. There are many Kurds who own big businesses all around the country. What more do they want? Their primary goal is to divide the homeland. They cannot say it openly, but they all want to secede. Actually, all Kurds are supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK]. Today, they will ensure that the Kurdish language is taught as an elective course. But tomorrow, they will start to demand education in the Kurdish language. After local administrations are reinforced, they will increase their demands for a federation. Eventually, they will secede."

Because of this psychological threshold, I have preferred the southeastern issue to the Kurdish issue for many years. That is, until the Ergenekon case... The most distinctive feature of the Ergenekon trial is that it has forced us to give up old habits and has brought to light plots and deceptions. At the Ergenekon trial, justice has caught a shadowy and bloody hand. All the lights of justice have focused on the owners of that hand. For this reason, this trial is the trial of the century.

Turkey has three fundamental issues: reactionaryism (anti-secularism), the Sunni-Alevi divide and separatism (the Kurdish issue). What have we learned from the Ergenekon trial? All of these issues are problems artificially created through conspiracies, provocations, plots, deceptions or injustices. The people of this country do not have problems with each other, and this was the case in the past as well. But the powers that seek to maintain the guardianship of democracy have tried to tailor society as they wish by injecting baseless fears into society. None of these problems arose on their own. They were all artificially created. This is the truth that the incidents in Sivas and Kahramanmaraş and Gazi and the plots to assassinate Alevi leaders tell us. This is what the shows of Aczimendis, the plays staged by Fadime Şahin and Ali Kalkancı and placards reading "We want Shariah" carried in mosque courtyards tell us. This is what the burning down of Kurdish villages, the torturing of 500,000 -- yes, you heard it right, 500,000 -- people at military prison No. 5 in Diyarbakır, the cries that still echo on the walls, and 17,560 unsolved, inexplicable murder cases during the last 20 years tell us.

We cannot settle these problems if Turks, Kurds, Sunnis, Alevis, devout people and secularists do not accept this truth and do not grow aware of this plot being devised and do not try to understand each other. I must emphasize this clearly: The Kurdish issue will be solved by the collective conscience of the Turks.

Last week, I visited Diyarbakır. I met with the representatives of different groups and opinion leaders. Altan Tan -- whose father was beaten until he fainted while he was fasting during Ramadan in Diyarbakır prison and had his stomach squashed until his intestines and kidneys were damaged and who died at the age of 49 -- notes this: Those who want to leave this region do not amount to more than 2 percent. Ninety-eight percent want to live together with Turks.

I have listened to them. The people in the region are never supporters of the PKK. During the infamous cartoon crisis, the biggest rally was held in Turkey. Some 200,000 people protested the efforts to defame our Prophet.

In this regard, the Ergenekon trial is very important. If it were not for this trial, eyes of neither Turks nor Kurds would be opened, and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) could not launch the initiative.

The prerequisite for the settlement of the Kurdish issue is that Turkey should understand the pain Kurds suffer, and Kurds should understand Turks' sensitivities. We can solve these problems, God willing. As we have not grown hostile to each other despite so many provocations and plots and as the reasonable majority has maintained its common sense, we can conclude that we may keep our hopes alive.