The date which Parliament has scheduled is Nov. 10 -- a date circled in black on the national calendar as the day on which the founder of the republic breathed his last. The gist of the opposition’s complaint is that those now in power are trying to mark this solemn occasion by burying the Atatürkist legacy as well. The leader of the soi-disant social democratic opposition, Deniz Baykal, has spoken of a deliberate plot and accused the government of showing more respect for the symbols of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) than the Turkish flag. The secretary-general of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Cihan Paçacı, described the Kurdish plan as nothing less than an attempt “to destroy the Turkish Republic.”Such untempered criticism is as predictable as it is depressing. Mr. Baykal is himself guilty of betraying the sincere if perhaps naïve attempts by the social democrats in Turkey to maneuver Kurdish dissent away from violent confrontation and under a parliamentary roof. Erdal İnönü, leader of what was then called the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), fought the 1991 election with a slate that included the predecessors of today’s Kurdish nationalist Democratic Society Party (DTP). The SHP in those days was proactive in condemning the dirty war that was being conducted in the Southeast of Turkey on the grounds that it was creating the very bitterness it was intending to control. The attacks from the MHP are frustrating for the exact opposite set of reasons. That party has shown some maturity in trying to escape its racist origins as the voice of a Turkish supremacism. At one stage, it appeared to be comfortable as a more mainstream right-wing party. This latest outburst of fury suggests it has not strayed very far on its leash.
The opposition calculates that it has at last found an issue over which it can isolate and undermine the government’s obstinately high standing in the polls. Years of juxtaposing in the public mind (in the courts, in the press and in the political arena) any expression of Kurdishness with support for the destruction of the Turkish Republic by whatever means has taken its toll on common sense. It has come to the point where the soccer team from Diyarbakır cannot play a league match without attracting racist heckling from supporters of the opposite team that suggests that a team from the Kurdish Southeast must be manned by supporters of the PKK. Let us hope that Mr. Baykal’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the MHP are equally vociferous in condemning this ugly intolerance and will call upon the soccer league authorities to impose a serious penalty.
Turkish public opinion has been horrified by the joyous reception in the Southeast of PKK militants who have come down from the mountains in the hope of resuming a normal life. The nationalist discourse demands that they return with their heads lowered in shame. And while it would be pious to pretend there was no triumphalism in the manner of this return, an alternative reason was given by the DTP co-chairperson, Emine Ayna. She explained at a recent cultural festival in the city of Nusaybin that of course there were expressions of joy among a population who were only too accustomed to seeing their children return home in a pine box.
It has long been obvious that force alone will not provide the answer to Turkey’s Kurdish question. It has long been obvious as well that many prefer endless conflict to the attempt to resolve that problem through compromise and the democratic process. The contemporary nation must ask itself which is closer in spirit to the intentions of the man whose death they mourn on Nov. 10.
Benzer Haberler 
