This is a move that will strengthen the government's hand in its initiative to solve the decades-old Kurdish problem as part of the country's democratization process. In the midst of that development, a US decision to take measures against some PKK members can be assessed as support given by Washington to Ankara's peaceful efforts to solve the Kurdish problem so that the PKK threat can, to a great extent, be reduced.
The US announced last Wednesday that it had frozen all assets senior PKK members might have under US jurisdiction. This new US decision targeting three senior leaders of the PKK, also known as the Kurdistan People's Congress (Kongra-Gel), came after designating them narcotics traffickers in May of last year. Murat Karayılan, the head of Kongra-Gel, and high-ranking members Ali Rıza Altun and Zübeyir Aydar are the three names under US scrutiny.
Both the US and the European Union added the PKK/Kongra-Gel to their list of terrorist organizations several years ago. But Turkey has long complained that no concrete action has been taken by either to curb the PKK's financial activities, which have been taking place through various means, including through front companies. The PKK has been much more active in many EU countries than in the US through means that do not necessarily violate EU laws. In this sense, the US decision came as a surprise since there has not been any known information over the size of PKK assets in this country.
A story published in the Star daily last Sunday, quoting Turkish police sources, asked how it was possible for PKK members to open accounts in the US in their names, evading US financial monitors, or whether they had opened the accounts by authorizing a third person through a notary. In both cases, Star says, it reveals that the concerned PKK members were able to open accounts in the US without hesitation. In other words, the US allowed these PKK members to be active financially in this country.
This is a fair question that needs to be answered.
The US decision to pursue some PKK members strongly indicates that Washington has been extending support to Turkey's Kurdish opening, which requires, among other things, the PKK to lay down its arms and for PKK terrorists to come down from the mountains. Ending violence or curbing it will contribute considerably to a successful breakthrough in the Kurdish opening. Outside support to be lent to Turkey and that will encircle the PKK, based mainly in the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq, but also curb or stop its financial activities in various European countries will help the Turkish government in particular and the state in general to put into force its Kurdish opening.
The more Turkey pursues peaceful methods instead of military means in resolving its Kurdish question, the more it gets support from third countries in surrounding the PKK to force it to lay down its arms.
Some European countries have also been forging increased cooperation with Turkey in curbing the PKK's business activities on their soil. Despite ups and downs in political relations with France over French President Nicolas Sarkozy's offer to give Turkey privileged partnership status instead of full EU membership, Paris has, for example, intensified legal action against PKK-related businesses as well as narcotics smuggling activities. Bernard Emie, the French ambassador to Turkey, told me last week that French authorities have taken many measures against the PKK concerning their money trafficking and financial assets.
“Thirty-five PKK members have been arrested. Behind the curtains, serious cooperation with Turkey against the PKK has been taking place,” Emie told me last week.
Turkey is also aware that there needs to be strong evidence for the detention or arrest of PKK members over their various sorts of activities, including business activities -- some of which are legal under the concerned countries' laws. But Ankara appears to be welcoming the French stance against the PKK.
I envisage that Turkey's search for a solution to its Kurdish problem through peaceful means will bear fruit and that this will also find an increasingly positive response from third countries.
This will further help in surrounding the PKK while leaving no excuse to those inside Turkey who have benefited from the 25-year-old fight against terrorism, a fight that has taken the lives of more than 40,000 people while depleting Turkish financial resources.
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