Amberin Zaman, a correspondent for The Economist and an analyst with the GMF, said there is much to do to entice the Kurdish population of Turkey, adding that “a reasonable amnesty law for PKK fighters not implicated in violence would be an enormous step.” She emphasized that a key test of the credibility of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation’s (TRT) station TRT-6 will depend on the extent to which it airs dissenting views.
“On the one hand, it should avoid reducing its coverage to anti-PKK propaganda. On the other, it might for instance allow Kurds who advocate greater political autonomy for their kin [through peaceful means, naturally] to say so on screen.”
The analysis also points out that Gen. İlker Başbuğ, who became chief of general staff last August, “is every bit as hawkish when it comes to the Kurds,” but with a difference: “Although Turkish fighter jets continue to pound [PKK] camps in northern Iraq, Gen. Başbuğ has long espoused the view that it will take more than guns to beat the PKK.
Indeed, it is widely assumed that his blessings played a part in the establishment of the new Kurdish language channel.”
Another point made in the analysis refers to the closure case against the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) on the grounds that it is threatening the unity of the Turkish state. Emphasizing that charges against the DTP include issuing invitation cards in Kurdish, Zaman wrote that no one from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) paid any attention even though the AK Party itself “narrowly escaped closure on similarly specious grounds last year.”
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