Kurdish
Question In Turkey:
Towards A New Crossroad
By
ARAM
25 July, 2003
In
February 1999 when the leader of PKK (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan - Kurdistan
Workers Party) Abdullah Ocalan was abducted by a USA lead international
conspiracy and handed over to Turkey, the expectations were more as
follows: In Northern Kurdistan (Southeastern Turkey) where the Kurds
constitute the majority of the population and in large cities like Istanbul
which had received massive Kurdish migration as a result of ethnic cleansing,
Kurdish uprising would escalate and would become widespread. Turkey's
ultra-nationalist fascist party MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) was
declaring that this uprising would have at most a six months lifetime
and was demanding the PKK leader should be immediately hanged; some
retired Turkish army generals were following the same line: Abdullah
Ocalan should be hanged to give a clear message to the whole and the
last Kurdish uprising of the 20th century should be brutally oppressed.
However, after being
captured, intending a democratic solution for the Kurdish question,
Abdullah Ocalan detained in isolation in Imrali Island of the Marmara
Sea wanted Kurdish guerillas fighting in the mountains of Kurdistan
to draw to the Southern Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) and the mass demonstrations
with impending violence to be stopped. In accordance with his demand,
the protests whole over Turkey had stopped and most of the Kurdish guerrilla
drew to Southern Kurdistan. It seemed that a war with a toll of 30,000
casualties, thousands of demolished Kurdish villages and millions of
expelled Kurds was over. Abdullah Ocalan's suggestion to stop uprising
for democratic solution and the communication of this message to the
general public was no doubt realized by the permission of the high ranked
Turkish authorities. The dominant tendency in the state had been to
head towards a de facto cease-fire. The ultra-nationalist fascist alternative
which was empowered during the "low-intensity war against the Kurds"
and whose votes was increased up to 18% in 1999 elections was being
rendered useless.
In the same period,
by abolishing itself, PKK has started a process towards structuring
a congress and renamed itself as KADEK (Kongreya Azadi u Demokrasiya
Kurdistan - Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress). This was not
simply a renaming. In its court defenses KADEK leader Ocalan has claimed
that PKK has emerged and struggled for just reasons but was incapable
of renewing itself and was pulled into the terror created by the war.
He pronounced that although KADEK was a continuation of PKK, it has
to succeed in going beyond its predecessor. According to him, the Kurds
in 21st century has to play the following role in the Middle East: to
struggle for the democratization of the states that they are living
within their territories (Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria) and for the transformation
of the whole Middle East towards a federal structure of peoples having
an equal status.
When democratic
solution to the Kurdish question is pronounced, the first idea in public
opinion in Turkey is the legal changes to be carried out for Turkey's
participation to the European Union (EU). By these legal changes, Kurds
will certainly achieve some basic human rights. For example, abolishing
death penalty, freedom for the Kurdish language including political
propaganda, TV broadcasting in Kurdish language, freedom for learning
Kurdish language etc. are the essential measures among the EU criteria.
Moreover, the freedom for thought and expression are decisive for the
Kurdish population to express their political demands freely. For this
reason, the legal representative of the Kurdish Liberation Movement,
DEHAP (People's Democratic Party) which entered to the general elections
in November 2003 with a coalition with Turkish radical left parties
and had increased its votes over 6% has supported Turkey's membership
to the EU. In general, the Kurdish people have become a major component
of pro-EU public opinion in Turkey.
An important turning
point in Turkey's democratization process is the September 11th events.
After September 11th, together with the USA's "war against terror",
anti-EU power groups in Turkey again began to raise their voice. Especially
the policy leaded by the Turkish military - a regime perspective around
USA axis but also within some limited alliance with the EU - began to
be prominent. The consequences of this development for the Kurds and
the peoples in Turkey in general were the dropping of "democratic
solution" to the Kurdish Question from the agenda. Here, the biggest
failure of the anti-democratic powers in Turkey is their wrong analysis
of USA's Middle East policy. After September 11th, they were unable
to see that Turkey's importance was not geo-strategical but geo-tactical
and they supposed that Turkey could be a strategic ally to USA in Middle
East alongside with Israel. They believed they could have imposed their
own Kurdish policy on USA. They would have to pay the cost of this wrong
assessment by the start of the Gulf War II.
Few months before
the Gulf War II, on the 3rd of November 2002, Turkey went through an
important general election. After this general elections a party insisting
on Turkey's entrance to EU and not approved by the Turkish Military
because of its Islamic attitude - AKP (Justice and Development Party)
has gained power and had the right to sit alone in the office. AKP was
established by a political group separated from Islamic RP (Welfare
Party) that had had anti-western tendencies. AKP declared they were
"Muslim-Democrats" or "right-wing conservatives"
and were rejecting fundamentalism. They were successful in gaining the
support of the majority of the right-wing electorate by claiming that
religious freedom in Turkey would be also achieved by Turkey's entrance
to the EU. Moreover, they were promising freedom and welfare for all
sectors of the society. AKP was holding back from the military and civil
bureaucracy of the state. It's leader Tayyip Erdogan was not able to
become elected MP as he has committed crime of thought expression. In
order to make himself accepted he had met several country leaders, G.
W. Bush being the primary one, and wanted to show that he is the de
facto prime minister of the government. Plan was successful: For him,
an interim election was organized; he became an MP and the de facto
prime minister became the official prime minister.
When the Gulf War
II has started the AKP government was under a difficult situation against
USA administration which had been supported them: The memorandum which
would let almost whole Turkey to be used as a logistic base in USA's
Iraq war was turned down by the Turkish parliament. But USA administration
knew who was the guilty: Turkish military, to whom they had provided
limitless arms and diplomatic support in its "low-intensity war"
against the Kurds for many years. Actually, before the negotiation in
the parliament, AKP had demanded the National Security Council (MGK)
that comprises the Turkish General Stuff together with the president
and the government representatives and having the power to influence
the parliament, to make a declaration favoring the memorandum. But this
demand was refused. Soon, the Chief of the General Stuff Hilmi Ozkok
has declared that they had supported the resolution but for the sake
of democracy they didn't want to influence the parliament. However,
naturally, the USA administration was not convinced with this declaration.
Everybody knew that the MGK in Turkey had been the top government structure
for decades, civil governments were not able to take critical decisions
without the consent of this body and Turkish General Stuff was the most
powerful element within this governmental organization. The real problem
lied in somewhere else: the Kurdish policy of Turkish General Stuff
had began to live through a severe conflict with the Middle East and
particularly the Kurdish policy of the USA.
From the Kurdish
perspective, after the US occupation, the Kurdish leaders in Southern
Kurdistan (Barzani, leader of Kurdish Democratic Party and Talabani,
leader of Patriotic Union Of Kurdistan) aligned their future to the
fate of the new colonial administration. However, the political leadership
of the Northern Kurdistan Kurds within the boundaries of Turkey (KADEK
and its chairman Ocalan) indicated that Turkey is at a crossroad. Either
it will follow a path of peace and democracy and move towards a new
social restructuring based on voluntary unity of the peoples of Turkey,
or the colonial regime that includes Southern Kurdistan will become
an attraction center for all Kurds of the region.
The civil and military
elite circles that dominate the administration of Turkey are still insisting
on pursuing their traditional policies. The essence of this policy is
to prevent Kurds from attaining any equal people status as other peoples
in the Middle East by exerting a harsh oppression on them. On the one
hand they are trying to prevent a federative Kurdish state in Southern
Kurdistan under the protection of USA, on the other hand they are trying
to destroy the political leadership of North Kurdistan Kurds, that is
KADEK. At the same time they are provoking a low-profile anti-imperialist
discourse and preparing the left and right wing nationalists for a possible
Turkish-Kurdish war.
There is a virtual
solidarity between Turkey, Syria and Iran. Syria is systematically arresting
KADEK members and handing them over to Turkey. Iran is firing shells
over the border to the regions in Southern Kurdistan where the KADEK
guerrilla fighters are based. Turkey is launching military operations
against the guerrilla groups in Northern Kurdistan. During the skirmishes
at Northern Kurdistan, KADEK guerrillas are responding to Turkish military
operations within the frame of self-defense and retaliation. At the
moment the war is not declared officially. However Turkish officials
indicate that a "war against terror" as it had been conducted
in 1990's may start.
It should be noted
that the civil and military elite circles that are trying to "solve"
the Kurdish question by traditional methods are facing with serious
difficulties. They cannot align their Kurdish policy with USA. USA is
dismissing the geo-strategic importance of Turkey after Gulf War II
and inhibiting the movements of Turkish military in Southern Kurdistan,
as has been demonstrated by the arrest of a squad of Turkish Special
Forces in Kirkuk. Turkish state knows that it cannot conduct a war against
Kurds without US support, so it uses the presence of KADEK - which is
on USA's terror list - in Northern and Southern Kurdistan as a pretext.
At his point the
major obstacle for Turkish civil and military elite is the "amnesty
and social reconciliation" campaign declared by KADEK. KADEK leader
A. Ocalan currently detained in Imrali Island under isolation has announced
that he is open to all sorts of sacrifice including his banishment that
can open the path for peace and democracy and eliminate the threat of
a new impending war. However the Turkish state is insisting on its opposition
against any kind of roadmap that might result in the political representation
of Kurds by gaining a status of an equal people. Abduction and rape
of DEHAP Chairwoman Gulbahar Gunduz by certain individuals who are known
to be police was the most important provocation that aims to stop civil
and peaceful actions. After this incidence, hundreds of people who took
action for peace and amnesty have been arrested.
The Kurdish Question
in Turkey has become a quagmire. There are developments that may yield
to very diverse roads. Turkish state could not manage to destroy the
political center of Kurdish liberation movement (KADEK). AKP started
to bestow some rights to Kurds in accordance to the EU criteria, however
since the political center of Kurdish liberation movement could not
be destroyed they think that restricting the Kurdish identity as a sub-identity
is impossible and they are cautious about taking further steps. Furthermore
even if KADEK would have been destroyed militarily and rendered ineffectual
politically, it seems impossible to prevent Northern Kurdistan Kurds,
who have been suppressed for a long time and valued at most as a secondary
people in accord with EU criteria, to rely on the formation of Kurdish
federative state in Southern Kurdistan. The empire looks more promising
than a mere nation state with regards to basic rights. At this very
point, Ocalan warns Turkish state: Either peace and democracy or overall
corruption and decadence.
As Turkey comes
close to a new crossroad regarding the Kurdish question, KADEK leader
Ocalan insists that the Kurdish liberation movement should move with
a paradigm that transcends the nationalistic and Marxist boundaries
since five years. He proposes to establish democratic and ecologic social
coordinations that will besiege and keep under control the state instead
of a strategy that aims seizing the state or establishing a new one,
to reject any "statist" orientation and to stop resorting
to armed struggle except the cases of self-defense. The reason for Turkey,
Iran, Syria, US and EU not to digest the Northern Kurdistan-based Kurdish
liberation movement is that vision. As Southern Kurdistan starts to
become a "reliable" base for a colonial regime that provides
a ground for ethnic conflicts, Northern Kurdistan is becoming an "unreliable"
ground where the Kurdish liberation movement is trying to restructure
itself as a dynamic of the global liberation movement.
Finally the KADEK
Council of Presidency has announced that they will wait until the 1st
of September (World Peace Day) and if no attempt is developed by the
government that deals with the Kurdish question outside the "terror
domain", they will abolish their compromising policy that proves
to be ineffective as long as it is unilateral. If the Turkish Government
itself doesn't build a compromising policy, probably most of the KADEK
guerrilla forces will turn back to the Northern Kurdistan and armed
struggle will become a routine matter in Turkey's agenda. It is not
easy to see the consequences of such a development in the Middle East
in general.