ARMENIA, DEMOCRATIC INITIATIVE DOMINATE MGK AGENDA

Today’s Zaman
Oct 21 2009
Turkey

The National Security Council (MGK) convened yesterday at the Cankaya
Presidential Palace for a meeting focused on the government’s recent
efforts to settle the Kurdish issue and the process of Armenian-Turkish
rapprochement, which has recently gained momentum with an agreement
signed between the two countries.

October’s regular MGK meeting came just after the surrender of a group
of outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to Turkish authorities on
Monday, which was evaluated by many as a move to strengthen the hand
of the government in its recently launched democratization package
to end the country’s decades-old Kurdish issue. On Monday evening,
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a meeting with ministers
attending the MGK to evaluate the PKK’s move. Following this meeting,
which lasted almost an hour and a half, Erdogan also met with National
Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T) Undersecretary Emre Taner at the
Prime Ministry to discuss the PKK’s action.

Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the terrorist PKK, who is
serving life in prison on Ä°mrali Island, urged the PKK last week
to send what he described as "peace groups" to surrender to Turkish
authorities. Eight members of the PKK, four women and four men, the
eldest being 57 and the youngest 24, joined a larger group coming
from the Makhmur refugee camp in northern Iraq. The total number of
people in the group was reported to be 34.

In the meeting Erdogan held with ministers on Monday, top government
officials reportedly concluded that the initiative process has started
to be controlled by the PKK with Parliament failing to address the
issue. Sources close to the government said this conclusion was also
voiced at the MGK meeting.

Another main topic of yesterday’s MGK meeting was the agreement
signed on Oct. 10 in Zurich between Turkey and Armenia to start
internal political consultations to establish diplomatic relations and
develop bilateral relations. The protocols, which must be ratified in
order to go into effect, envisage internal political consultations
being concluded within six weeks. The Turkish government favors
the ratification of the protocols simultaneously with the Armenian
parliament. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu briefed the meeting’s
participants about the current process regarding relations with
Armenia.

Another issue the meeting covered was the recent tension between
Turkey and Israel, which escalated after Israel’s exclusion from the
Turkish military’s Anatolian Eagle exercise and Israel’s protest about
"Ayrılık," a television drama aired by the state-owned Turkish
Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) that depicts the suffering
of Palestinians.