Turkey Analyst,
vol. 2 no. 22
7 December 2009

WHAT THE COLUMNISTS SAY

The fate of the “Kurdish opening” and its implications for societal peace and national unity remains the major preoccupation of the Turkish commentators. In the wake of several incidents of inter-communal violence between Turks and Kurds in the western parts of the country, and not least the attacks on a convoy carrying representatives of the Kurdish DTP in Izmir, the specter of a looming civil war has come to haunt the commentators. The hopeful atmosphere of recent months has all but evaporated, with dire warnings about the future increasingly setting the tone of the debate.

MERT: THE KURDISH OPENING LOOKS LIKE A STATE DICTATE
Nuray Mert in Radikal is critical of the “authoritarian language” and the heavy-handed approach of the government. The attitude of the government is that it knows best how to deal with the Kurdish issue and it expects everybody to comply with its prescriptions without objection. Frankly, I am having a hard time understanding how a democratic environment is going to be introduced this way. Indeed, the Kurdish opening is increasingly appearing to be strategically aimed rather than having anything to do with democratization.  The claim of the government that the opening is a “state project”, as well as the fact that the opening has been re-baptized a “national unity project” emphasizes that we are indeed faced with another dictate from the state. The government counters the nationalist opposition to the opening by reverting to a language that comes dangerously close to depicting those who raise objections as “traitors”. And the “democrats” who don’t want to find themselves in the same camp as the CHP and MHP (the nationalist opposition parties) see no other alternative than to look the other way. Yet, if we are going to keep the hope of democratization alive, we need to apply the same standards to the government and opposition alike. Democracy can never be introduced by an authoritarian mentality.

TEMELKURAN: TURKEY IS BECOMING A FRACTIOUS MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRY
Against the backdrop of recent incidents of inter-communal violence in the western parts of the country, Ece Temelkuran in Milliyet worries about the future of Turkey. Politically, socially and ethnically we are increasingly coming apart. Indeed, we are becoming a typically Middle Eastern country divided into sub-communities that have nothing in common with each other, and where threats are issued from every quarter. The DTP (The Kurdish party) threatens the Turkish nationalists, declaring that they will not be allowed to enter Diyarbakir. The AKP has its heavy-handed rhetoric, declaring that it knows best how to instruct everyone else. The CHP threatens that “it knows best how to crush a rebellion”. Can anything good come out of such a confrontational political climate?

MAHCUPYAN: THE FLAWED “MODERNITY”
Etyen Mahcupyan in Taraf writes about the predicament of Turkey’s secularists, about what he describes as their innate penchant for violence. The picture of a “modern”-looking young woman, her hair dyed, with a blouse that leaves part of her belly exposed, ready to throw a stone at the convoy of the Kurdish DTP in the supposedly enlightened city of Izmir reveals the psychology of those who were supposed to be “modern”. These people have so little say at the present and will have so little to say about the future of the country that they have become desperate about their marginalization. However, their supposed “modernity” was always flawed; it never encompassed the notion of tolerance toward those others that didn’t look like them. Modernity in this version was always a distorted one.

GÜRSEL: THE KURDS NEED TO EXPLAIN WHY THEY DON’T WANT TO SECEDE
Kadri Gürsel in Milliyet exhorts the representatives of the Kurdish movement to explain loudly and clearly to the Turks why they want to continue to share a commonwealth with them. If they succeed in convincing the Turks that the Kurds indeed have their own, rational reasons for keeping Turkey intact – for instance, a Kurdish friend of mine expressed the fear that an independent Kurdistan ruled by the PKK risks becoming a fascist state whereas Turkey has a democratic infrastructure – then Kurds will be able to enjoy a peaceful existence along the cities of the Aegean coast that they don’t want to give up on. But they should recognize that the Aegean coast will not come to rest if the Kurds persist in dressing up little children in guerilla outfits, parading them along the streets of Izmir in order to create a psychology of defeat among the Turks.

BARLAS: DTP HAS SABOTAGED THE OPENING
Bernard Lewis once remarked that the “Turks usually make the wrong decisions, but they always make the right decision at the very last moment”, recalls Mehmet Barlas in Sabah. I wonder whether Lewis will be proven right this time as well, about the Kurdish opening. So far, the list of wrong decisions is indeed long. Haven’t we seen how the CHP has identified itself with the positions of the MHP? And finally, the DTP, the party whose existence was supposed to facilitate a democratic solution, has sided with Abdullah Öcalan and made his fate its primary concern. Hasn’t that been the most harmful act of sabotage against the opening? Osman Baydemir, the DTP mayor of Diyarbakir, states that Öcalan and the PKK are ready to commit themselves to a solution. One might conclude that Baydemir is a foreigner. It is as if Osman Baydemir does not practice politics in or even live in Turkey. Is the majority for whom Öcalan is a murderer of children ready to accept a solution that is preferred by the same Öcalan?

ÇANDAR: IT IS THE KURDS THAT HAVE TO BE SATISFIED
Cengiz Çandar in Radikal writes that convincing the Turks of the desirability of the Kurdish opening is indeed a necessary precondition for its success. However, to convince the recalcitrant Turks is still not the most important of preconditions. What counts most is that the critical mass of the Kurdish population that is a direct party to the conflict – which is not the case for the Turkish population – is convinced that the solution that is being proposed indeed satisfies its demands and aspirations. And whether we like it not, that “critical mass” is represented by the PKK and DTP. If the opening eventually ends with a fiasco, it will have come about because of a failure to win over the Kurdish population. It is of crucial importance that the channels remain open between the AKP – that effectively represents a good part of those whose supra-identity is “Turkish” – and the DTP.

© Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center, 2009. This article may be reprinted provided that the following sentence be included: "This article was first published in the Turkey Analyst (www.turkeyanalyst.org), a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center".

The Turkey Analyst
The Turkey Analyst is a publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Joint Center, designed to bring authoritative analysis and news on the rapidly developing domestic and foreign policy issues in Turkey. It is published weekly, and includes a topical analysis, as well as translations and summaries of selected Turkish news reports. It is edited and compiled under the supervision of Svante E. Cornell, Halil M. Karaveli, and M. K. Kaya.

The analyses appearing in the Turkey Analyst are often written by the three Editors. The Turkey Analyst occasionally publishes signed guest analyses.

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The Joint Center was created in 2005 through the merger of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and the Silk Road Studies Program, at the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy.

The Turkey Initiative
The Joint Center launched a Turkey Initiative in 2006 in order to improve understand of Turkish domestic and foreign affairs in Europe and the United States.

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