Talks that lead nowhere
Talks that lead nowhere
The papers are full of it. The tv channels dedicate at least a couple of programs a day to the issue. There is a kind of tangible embarrassment at government level. The big question is "How can we defeat the PKK?" And the reality is that the only possible answer is "we can't". This is a reality that the Turkish government and establishment sooner or later will have to come to terms with. Endless discussions on tv panels only point out at the same conclusion. "Experts" speak for hours only to conclude that indeed nobody can defeat not just the PKK but the will of millions of Kurdish people.
And yet Prime Minister Erdogan is still trying to resuscitate his 'açilim', his 'opening' initiative which indeed is dead and in a short time will be buried as well. It died because, as professor Haluk Gerger points out, "you cannot seriously think to solve the Kurdish question without the involvement of the Kurds". It would be like saying you want to make an omelet without eggs.
Prime Minister Erdogan's proposal was an empty box from the beginning. And it is pointless to go and meet different section of the society, barring the Kurds, to ask them to fill the box with everything except the only thing that could have made the 'opening' mechanism working, i.e. the Kurds, their views, their opinion, their words.
So yesterday's meeting with women organized by the Prime Minister was yet another hole in the water. Nobody has nothing to say because indeed they are asked to pretend that the 'opening' is alive and kicking while is dead and nearly buried. So the discourse turns inevitably to security, and the question become how to counter 'terrorism'. The easiest answer is clearly by sending more troops and arms to the 'warzone'. But this is an answer which only fools people.
The discussion these days is all focused on the need for a specialized or specially trained army. Officers with special powers which we can only too easy imagine to be 'special powers' to kill even more easily than what is done now.
The calls by the Kurdish representatives who keep talking about peace, dialogue, engagement with 'the other' are passing by ignored by the government which seems to be more concerned with finding a way to survive than a way to get out of the cul de sac it has entered itself.
The Kurdish people want peace and they are repeating their call on every available venue. In Diyarbakir today 400 once again met to ask for peace. They will discuss for two days and tomorrow they will make public the result of their discussion. But the risk is that this call also will end up in the dustbin. The government so far has shown no will of listening to the Kurdish people. If one was to choose a symbolic image of the government's failure, among many, it would be that of the peace group from Maxmur refugee camp returning to Iraq. They arrive full of hopes and sure that something will indeed happen. They were welcomed triumphally by the Kurdish people who came out on the streets in their tens of thousands. The government answer was one of stiffness promptly followed by repression.
The peace group going back to Iraq is certainly a shameful outcome for the government and a lost opportunity once again for creating the bases for peace.
And yet Prime Minister Erdogan is still trying to resuscitate his 'açilim', his 'opening' initiative which indeed is dead and in a short time will be buried as well. It died because, as professor Haluk Gerger points out, "you cannot seriously think to solve the Kurdish question without the involvement of the Kurds". It would be like saying you want to make an omelet without eggs.
Prime Minister Erdogan's proposal was an empty box from the beginning. And it is pointless to go and meet different section of the society, barring the Kurds, to ask them to fill the box with everything except the only thing that could have made the 'opening' mechanism working, i.e. the Kurds, their views, their opinion, their words.
So yesterday's meeting with women organized by the Prime Minister was yet another hole in the water. Nobody has nothing to say because indeed they are asked to pretend that the 'opening' is alive and kicking while is dead and nearly buried. So the discourse turns inevitably to security, and the question become how to counter 'terrorism'. The easiest answer is clearly by sending more troops and arms to the 'warzone'. But this is an answer which only fools people.
The discussion these days is all focused on the need for a specialized or specially trained army. Officers with special powers which we can only too easy imagine to be 'special powers' to kill even more easily than what is done now.
The calls by the Kurdish representatives who keep talking about peace, dialogue, engagement with 'the other' are passing by ignored by the government which seems to be more concerned with finding a way to survive than a way to get out of the cul de sac it has entered itself.
The Kurdish people want peace and they are repeating their call on every available venue. In Diyarbakir today 400 once again met to ask for peace. They will discuss for two days and tomorrow they will make public the result of their discussion. But the risk is that this call also will end up in the dustbin. The government so far has shown no will of listening to the Kurdish people. If one was to choose a symbolic image of the government's failure, among many, it would be that of the peace group from Maxmur refugee camp returning to Iraq. They arrive full of hopes and sure that something will indeed happen. They were welcomed triumphally by the Kurdish people who came out on the streets in their tens of thousands. The government answer was one of stiffness promptly followed by repression.
The peace group going back to Iraq is certainly a shameful outcome for the government and a lost opportunity once again for creating the bases for peace.
