OPPOSITION LASHES OUT AT PEACE MOVE
Today’s Zaman
Oct 22 2009
Turkey
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) groundbreaking move of turning
over 34 of its members to Turkish authorities at the Habur border
gate on Monday has changed the course of the government’s democratic
initiative to settle the country’s decades-long Kurdish issue,
strengthening hopes that the PKK may lay down its arms.
Yet, although for many the PKK turning over some of its members
signifies a move toward peace, the opposition, which has remained
highly critical of the government’s efforts since the day the
initiative was first announced in July, argues that it was a result
of bargaining between the ruling Justice and Development Party (PKK)
government and the PKK. During their parliamentary group meetings on
Tuesday, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz
Baykal said the surrender of PKK members has revealed that jailed
PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan has a major role in the initiative while
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli once again
said the best method to end PKK terrorism was armed struggle. Both
statements have been criticized by many analysts.
"The ruling party seems to have kicked off a win-win scenario. If the
‘game’ ends with a satisfactory result, both Turkey and the party will
win as it will receive political gains and an election victory. The
two main opposition parties, on the other hand, favor the continuation
of the game in a lose-lose situation," says Ä°smet Berkan from the
Radikal daily. Noting that this is the cause of the current tragedy
in Turkey over the Kurdish issue, Berkan says the CHP and the MHP
are frantically defending the status quo at all costs although they
know it cannot be maintained and the game will be lost in the end. "I
cannot understand how can such arguments can be termed ‘patriotism’,"
Berkan says.
Quoting remarks from Bahceli, who said while referring to the
PKK groups that those who were met with applause were not pilgrims
returning from Mecca, Fehmi Koru from the Yeni Å~^afak daily says that
if the country awaited the group like they were pilgrims returning
from Mecca, it is due to the stance of politicians like Bahceli on
the Kurdish issue. "If a government that is brave enough to find a
solution to this [Kurdish] issue and to end terrorism had not appeared,
we would turn into a country whose number of martyrs would be equal
to the number of its pilgrims," he says.
Star’s Ahmet Kekec has a hard time figuring out Baykal, who calls
himself a "social democrat." "He opposes a democratic constitution, he
opposes an Armenian initiative, he opposes the Kurdish initiative …
What are we going to do with you? Tell us something in favor of this
country, bring a proposal and constructive criticism and that’ll be
the day!" he implores Baykal.