Does Turkish Government Come to an Impasse to Prevent Terror?

Does Turkish Government Come To An Impasse To Prevent Terror?

Turkish government has mulled over to stop direct peace negotiation with Terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the PKK's imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan . Turkish government began direct talks with The PKK and its imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan in order to stop the PKK terrorist attacks and solve Turkey’s Kurdish problem at the beginning of 2013. The PKK has made all the efforts to create a Kurdish nation, and to establish a separate state in the south-east of Turkey for almost 40 years. PKK’s terrorist attacks have cost about 30,000 live and billions of dollars to Turkey .

History of Kurdish Issue

Kurds in the Middle East live in Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey. Kurds are the second largest ethnic group in Turkey. During the Ottoman Empire (until 1923) the Kurds held a unique position, and Kurds and Turks lived peacefully, side by side. However, conflict between Turks and Kurds kicked off after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey (1923). Because, in new republic, the governments aimed create a homogeneous Turkish nation, without regard to the ethnic origin of various indigenous population groups. This attempt to create a homogenous Turkish nation caused to ignore other nations’ languages, cultures, and sense in Turkey. For instance, it was even forbidden to sing Kurdish songs.

The PKK was established by Abdullah Öcalan as a terrorist organization in 1978. The PKK founded training camps in the mountains in the south-east of Turkey, and began to organize terrorist attacks to create an independent Kurdish state.

Not only people living in Turkey’s southeastern but also all citizens have felt the bitter effects of the conflict between the PKK and the Turkish military. Because, this conflict has caused to die over 30,000 people, and waste of billions of dollars.

Approaches to Solve Kurdish Problem

Turkey has reacted to all insurgencies with heavy military force, from establishment of the Republic of Turkey to direct peace negotiation with the PKK. Ethnic requests were suppressed by the military, and dissenting parties were abolished by the courts. Turkey’s reaction to the PKK problem was only way of the military power.

Current Turkish government, consist of members of Justice and Development Party (AKP), consider that the Kurdish problem cannot resolve only military power contrast to former governments. According to The AKP government approach, the Kurdish problem is a multidimensional political and cultural, rather than security. This approach can be claimed as a serious attempt that to break with republican state tradition based on military solutions. The AKP government announced to introduce new law and give new democratic rights all ethnic groups, including Kurds in Turkey. Lifting ban on Kurdish television stations, establish the first state television network in the Kurdish language, politicians can run election campaigns in Kurdish, Kurdish are allowed to be taught in schools, and is introduced in various educational settings, including universities are some of the new democratic rights.

Furthermore, Turkish government began direct peace talks with terrorist PKK and its imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan in order to stop PKK’s terrorist attacks and solve Turkey’s Kurdish problem in 2013.

Direct Peace Talks With The Terrorist PKK

The Turkish intelligence agency –MIT- negotiated peace process to the Kurdish problem with incarcerated PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan. According to peace process, The PKK agree to stop terrorist attacks and withdraw from Turkey, and Turkish government agree to provide more democratic rights to Kurds such as the use of certain letters like q, w, x, which are especially necessary for Kurdish alphabet, different languages and dialects would be taught in future in private schools, a discussion would take place about the ten percent hurdle for participating in parliamentary elections, which may be reduced to five percent or even completely abolished, financial support for campaigns would be extended to parties that receive at least three percent of the vote, parties would administer election campaigns in various languages throughout the election season, further reforms would be made in the area of rights to demonstration and protections against discrimination, providing for various constitutional amendments and the guarantee of minority rights.

Direct peace talks with the PKK was very difficult and risky decision for selected current Turkish government, Justice and Development