Fate of the Kurdish initiative

The latest attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which claimed the lives of a dozen soldiers, have given ammunition to opponents of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government’s Kurdish initiative, which was launched last year in the hopes of solving Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish problem.

Opponents of the initiative, which aims to solve the Kurdish problem though democratic and peaceful means, urged the government to abandon the already-stalled initiative process. Despite the year that has passed since the government first revealed its intention to solve Turkey’s most pressing problem, not many significant steps have been taken.

Now that these circles are using the latest PKK violence as a tool to dissuade the government from the initiative and embrace a hawkish and forceful approach in dealing with this problem, the fate of the Kurdish initiative remains a subject of debate.

Sabah’s Mahmut Övür thinks Turkey needs the Kurdish initiative today more than ever, although some are afraid of mentioning it at a time of escalated terror. “We do not have any other chances, other than pushing ahead with the initiative process,” he says. Recalling the 1990s, when Turkey used force to stop terrorism, he notes: “Where did we get to, despite the numbers of people we lost? The way to end terrorism is not by killing more and more people. We know this experience best. We have all witnessed that this is not the right way. For once, we should try the democratic solution process.”

Milliyet’s Derya Sazak also points out the importance of Turkey’s not using force in trying to end PKK terrorism and solve the Kurdish problem, saying that Turkey’s use of force just serves the interests of the PKK. He thinks if Turkey can find political solutions to the problem instead of referring it to the military, the Kurdish movement will become politicized and the war will end.

In this regard, he calls on the opposition parties, mainly the Republican People’s Party (CHP), to reveal their proposals for a solution to the problem if they think the government is incapable of solving it. “We will restart talking about a solution from the very beginning; there is not another solution,” says Sazak.

“No matter how violent terrorism gets, the only way to end it is democratization,” says Star’s Mustafa Karaalioğlu, who thinks the current debate in Turkey on whether the government’s Kurdish initiative has ended or not is meaningless considering the fact that Turkey has no option other than the use of democratic means to end terrorism.

“Let’s admit that Turkey has paid the price of every single step it has failed to take for the solution of this problem for decades with more bloodshed and it is paying this price again today,” argues Karaalioğlu.

F Disli Zibak reported for Todays Zaman

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Category: HEADLINES, NATIONAL