Gül: Kurdish problem is the most important problem of Turkey

When Gül was traveling to Teheran in March he had also said that, “Good developments can take place regarding the Kurdish question.” When he was reminded of these words by the journalists accompanying him Gül told them that: “Improvements should be taking place and it is possible. Everybody is aware of the issue. First, a working understanding should be established. Everybody in the state is now talking to each other more frequently and openly.

When I say everybody I mean soldiers, civilians and the intelligence community. In such an atmosphere good things happen. This is why I am saying improvements will take place. There is an opportunity and it should not be missed.”

Recently Hasan Cemal of Milliyet daily interviewed one of the leaders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Murat Karayılan. In this interview Karayılan underlined that they are not defending the separatists ideas, they are ready to peace. Karayılan advocated that the state should consider the PKK as a counterpart, if not PKK, Abdullah Öcalan who is serving a life sentence on İmralı Island in the Marmara Sea and if not him, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP). Karayılan added that if the state does not want to take any of them as counterpart a group of wise-men could contribute to the process.

Murat Yetkin from Radikal daily who was accompanying President Gül to Prague wrote that if Gül will meet Cemal to hear his impressions from first hand, it would not be surprising. Yetkin also claimed that within the state apparatus there could be an initiative regarding the Kurdish problem but this is not clear yet.

When the chairperson of the DTP Ahmet türk was asked about the statement of Gül he said that he is agreeing with the President:

“Before solving this problem it is impossible to talk about democratic or developed Turkey. Everybody is giving messages based on the fact that the solution can be reached by dialogue, concessions and common sense. This is very important,” Türk said.

Reminded that last week he met with the Gül and in this meeting the President underlined that everybody has a responsibility on the issue and this responsibility should be fulfilled.

“It is time to give the name of the problem correctly and to submit democratic civil projects about it,” Türk underlined.

Sezgin Tanrıkulu the former chairperson of the Diyarbakır Bar Association also reminded the meetings of Gül with the political parties leaders including Türk and said that “It is also important to reach a common understanding with the establishments of the state. He also underlined that Gül since a long time is mentioning the Kurdish question:

“But on the other hand almost two years were passed since Gül elected as the President. He was Prime Minister, he knows the political structure very well. He is responsible of political coordination but it is difficult to say that these two years there were concrete steps regarding the solution,” Tanrıkulu underlined. 

Tarık Ziya Ekinci a prominent Kurdish intellectual had also said that Gül’s statement was very positive and as Gül pointed out everybody in the state is discussing the problem more openly and frequently but the nature of these discussions are important, too:

“But when they are discussing about the problem among themselves, they don’t take the real counterpart as the counterpart. Their understanding of ‘I might make your life better but first you should be surrender’ does not fit to universal rules, political rules nor happened in the history. If they want a solution they should discuss it with its counterpart,” Ekinci said and added that he is agreeing with Karayılan about the question of who is the counterpart.

Mehmet Emin Aktar the chairperson of the Diyarbakır Bar Association underlined that it is time to take some steps now.

“First of all we need a suitable atmosphere in which we can discuss the Kurdish problem freely. Also the Kurds should clean up from the violence,” he said.

According to him, the state should implement confidence building measures in order to strengthen the civil society so the civil society can put pressure on the PKK to withdraw its forces out of the borders of Turkey. “For example the state can make some changes in anti-terror law at least for not judging the children as grown-ups when the anti-terror law is the subject. Such steps will give the opportunity to civil forces to tell the PKK that to make the guns silent is not enough, the possibility of clashes should be removed also, so you have to take your forces out of Turkey. Then we can create the suitable atmosphere for the solution,” Aktar said.  The PKK declared that it will not engage with clashes until June 1st and will monitor the developments.