BAYKAL: "WE WILL NOT BE FELLOW TRAVELLERS IN THIS AFFAIR"
Murat Yetkin
Radikal
Sept 6 2009
Turkey
That Prime Minister [Recep] Tayyip Erdogan,when he [Baykal] did not
respond to his request for a meeting to explain the Kurdish overture,
said "if he does not come, then we will go to him," has not softened
CHP [Republican People’s Party] leader Deniz Baykal.
Baykal, who accuses the government of "trying to prevent terrorism by
inciting ethnic division," has said, addressing Erdogan: "This road
is wrong. We are not going to be fellow travellers on this path. You
have other travelling companions on this road. But not us. We wish
you a safe journey. But I advise you to turn around immediately."
Baykal, speaking on the telephone during the Izmir-Aydin programme that
we did yesterday, when reminded of Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc’s
statement that "if need be, we will kiss his hand," and the words of
Prime Minister Erdogan that "if he does not come, then we will go to
him," made the following comment: "Look, we met, greeted each other,
and spoke on 30 August [Victory Day holiday]. This is not a matter
of a personal peeve. Comradeship, friendship, greeting one another,
extending holiday greetings, these are separate things… There is a
very vital national issue at stake. With this talk of ‘we will kiss
his hand’ and ‘we will visit him on the holiday,’ they are seeking
accomplices. We can greet each other and exchange holiday greetings,
but this is a matter of the country. We are not travelling on this
path."
Baykal explained as follows his reasons for not providing support to
the government’s Kurdish overture:
-"The government is putting Turkey under ethnic identity
pressure. This effort has already put Turkey under the pressure of
ethnic identity. But most of the citizens of Kurdish origin have no
complaint, and no problem, over being included within the national
identity. The vast majority of our citizens of Kurdish origin are
determined to live in harmony and peace. Most people of Kurdish
origin are uneasy about this, but are afraid, and are unable to say
‘take you hands away from this.’"
-"The government, by ignoring these people, is accepting narrow
groups that aim to bring about differentiation among these people in
Turkey as if they were these people’s spokesmen. They are caught in
the fallacy that by accepting these demands, they will be able to
prevent terrorism. They are taking a limited circle, a circle that
favours ethnic differentiation, as interlocutors, and are making the
majority uneasy. Whether they are aware of it or not, they are making
this mistake."
-"This has nothing to do with democratization. You cannot
prevent terrorism by encouraging ethnic division, you only incite
terrorism. You negotiate with them, they get a part of what they want,
they keep quiet for a year, and then they come at you seeking a little
more. Because the goal is clear."
-"Look, a plan has been announced from Imrali [island prison where
PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is incarcerated]. Where is it? What can
you conceal by covering up the plan presented at Imrali? You got the
paper at Imrali. The paper is in your hand. You know what is being
called for. Why are you unable to reveal it?"
-"They can say ‘we won’t take him [Ocalan] as an interlocutor’
all they want. They can conceal the proposals from the public all
they want. Things are coming to the point of ‘whatever Ocalan wants,
that is what it will be.’ That is what they are saying, but are our
citizens of Kurdish origin saying the same thing? Do the millions of
Kurdish-origin citizens want to shed blood? Absolutely not. Why does
the government not take them as interlocutors? Why is it falling into
this trap?"
-"With this project, Apo [Ocalan] has turned into a political
figure. The DTP [Democratic Society Party] is saying ‘we are not
the interlocutors; the interlocutor is Apo.’ There is a desire
being expressed for direct talks with Imrali. The PKK is virtually
becoming the entity in charge of whatever is being done, and whatever
is going to be done. It will be ‘it did it’, and ‘it caused it to be
done.’ Whose tool are you being here?"
-"I advise you to make an assessment of the situation on this journey
you are on, and to draw up for yourselves a new road map. I said
it shortly before as well, at the airport in Izmir. I advise you to
engage yourself not on the road map coming from Imrali, but rather
on a road map that moves in the direction desired by millions of our
people, including the overwhelming majority of the Kurdish-origin
people in Anatolia."
In short, Baykal is saying "count us out" to Erdogan. He is thus
displaying the tendency to leave the AKP [Justice and Development
Party] on its own with the DTP in this affair. Under these
circumstances, and unless there is some other project of which we
are unaware, even if Erdogan were to visit Baykal, what good would it
do? At most, reports would come out in the newspapers with headlines of
the sort ‘we went all the way to them; this nation will not forgive
them.’ It does not seem that anything would come of it. An error
made in the headquarters thus shows itself at the front. When the
government seeks to do, only when the waters begin to get muddy, what
it should have done at the outset, its initiative becomes labelled,
whether justly or unjustly, "an effort to seek accomplices."
Awaiting Statement From Gul
As for another "overture," Baykal also had words for Prime Minister
Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul regarding the announcement of the
"normalization protocol with Armenia." As follows:
-"This protocol was signed on 2 April. [US President] Barack Obama
came to Turkey after that. Did Abdullah Gul, one wonders, in his
meeting with Obama, make a comment or not regarding these protocols
that had been signed?"
-(In response to the question "do you know something in this
regard?") "I simply want to know. It was reportedly signed in
April. Now it is being announced. There is no written text, but
the Americans were waiting for this. There are also comments that
have been made in the [US] Congress. The President will presumably
make a statement in terms of ‘such a thing was or was not discussed
with Obama.’"
-"The Prime Minister went to Azerbaijan afterwards, and made a
statement about [no normalization with Armenia] until the occupation
of Karabagh ends. Later he expressed it more weakly, and linked it
to the withdrawal from occupied locations. In my view, it is Obama
that is managing this affair. The United States had these talks held
in Switzerland. That same Switzerland in which it is a crime to say
‘there was no [Armenian] genocide.’ Was it because of the reaction
of society at that time, I wonder, that no statement was made then? I
am awaiting a statement from President Gul."