Speculation is rife in Turkey that a settlement of the Kurdish question may finally be within reach after 25 years of violence and confrontation that has claimed 40,000 lives. But while politicians and commentators in Ankara and Istanbul focus on a new beginning, Kurds in the southeast of the country complain old-style, dead-end repression is only getting worse.
President Abdullah Gul, a close associate Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is the cause of much of the excitement. Amid reports the government is working up a new peace plan, Gul declared tantalizingly last week that a “historic opportunity” to solve the Kurdish issue had arisen. Speaking during a subsequent visit to Syria, Gul went further: “There is a common understanding among the state’s agencies. I am very hopeful ... Whatever you call it, the southeastern question, the Kurdish issue, or the terrorism problem, we have to find a solution... The best way to do this is to raise democratic standards in Turkey.”
Gul’s talk of a “new consensus” seemed to imply the secularist military, frequently at odds with Erdogan’s Islamist-minded Justice and Development party (AKP), was on board. Little more than a year ago, amid a major cross-border offensive against Kurdish insurgents in northern Iraq and rumored coup plots against the AKP, such a conclusion would have seemed implausible.
But after a remarkable speech last month by the army chief, Gen. Ilker Basbug, perceptions have changed. Basbug recast the Kurdish problem as a matter of national security and equally as a test of Turkish modernization and integration as it aspires to join the EU. He alluded to the need to address the social and economic roots of the violence espoused by the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers party. His empathetic statement that “even a terrorist is a human being” was seen as extraordinary given past enmities. Basbug’s broader theme — the fitness of Turkey to meet the challenges of the 21st century and how to balance secularism, security, democracy and faith — fitted neatly with Gul’s talk of raising democratic standards and breaking with the past. Writing in Today’s Zaman newspaper, columnist Ibrahim Kalin called the speech unprecedented. Gul’s idea of a “historic opportunity” has been reinforced by a conciliatory interview given to Milliyet newspaper by Murat Karayilan, a top PKK leader. “The PKK used to demand an independent Kurdish state but that’s been left in the past now,” he said. “We solely want Kurds to live under the Republic of Turkey equally and freely ... This is not a tactic. Our direction has changed.”
Turkish opposition politicians are skeptical about the prospects of a breakthrough, possibly for partisan reasons, and are resisting Gul’s call for all parties to work together. Deniz Baykal of the Republican People’s party said the government, having failed to defeat the PKK, was bowing to European and US pressure following Barack Obama’s recent visit. Other parties accused Erdogan and Gul of jeopardizing the national interest.
Skepticism also extends to Kurdish groups in the southeast who complain of increasing repression and continuing curbs on cultural and linguistic expression.
Speaking at the House of Lords in London last week, Muharrem Erbey, president of the Diyarbakir Human Rights Association, said over 300 people had been detained since Kurdish Democratic Society party (DTP) overcame a determined AKP campaign to make big gains in last March’s municipal elections. “We oppose violence. We don’t want loss of life. We want the armed fighters to join the political process. But we support people’s right to be outspoken in pursuit of their democratic rights ... Instead of having human rights and democracy in Turkey, it’s completely the other way round,” Erbey said.
Wherever it’s made, such public criticism is hazardous as the leading Kurdish activist and former MP, Leyla Zana, can testify. On June 2 a court in Diyarbakir will rule on Zana’s appeal against a 10-year jail sentence imposed for allegedly subversive comments made in public speeches, including one she delivered at the School of African and Oriental Studies in London. She was previously jailed for 10 years for the “crime” of speaking in Kurdish in the Turkish Parliament.
The Zana case is being watched closely across Europe and the US. Its outcome will be an indicator of whether Gul’s “historic opportunity” is anything more than steam-bath hot air.
