OPINION fikret-bila
The bar PKK has set
HDN | 9/27/2011 12:00:00 AM | FİKRET BİLA - fbila@milliyet.com.tr
Şerafettin Elçi, an independent deputy elected from the eastern province of Diyarbakır from the Labor, Democracy and Freedom bloc led by the Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, discussed significant information with Neşe Düzel from the daily Taraf.
Şerafettin Elçi, an independent deputy elected from the eastern province of Diyarbakır from the Labor, Democracy and Freedom bloc led by the Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, discussed significant information with Neşe Düzel from the daily Taraf.
Elçi is a politician who supports federation. He is the most experienced name in Kurdish politics, one whose words are valued. While answering questions of Düzel, Elçi says the talks between the National Intelligence Organization, or MİT, and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, recordings of which were posted on the Internet recently and date the conversations back at least to 2010, had moved to the “negotiation level” and continued until mid-2011.
[HH] ‘Saw the protocol’
Elçi says a protocol was prepared at the end of these negotiations and that he and other top-level BDP deputies saw the protocol. He says the protocol was approved by Abdullah Öcalan and was brought to Kandil by MİT where it was also approved.
Elçi also says the protocol was submitted to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan but was not signed by him. It can be understood from Elçi’s words that the prime minister’s not signing the protocol was the main reason behind the re-escalation of terror by the PKK and the targeting of civilians.
[HH] From speculation to interview
When the MİT-PKK talks became public information, there was speculation in Ankara that there was a protocol prepared as a result of these talks and that Erdoğan had not accepted nor signed it. Information as such stood at speculation level and was not expressed by any source.
A deputy such as Elçi, with an acknowledged credibility, is giving detailed information about the negotiations by saying he saw the protocol.
Among the information Elçi provides, the content of the protocol as well as its existence is very interesting. It can be deduced from the items Elçi says were in the protocol that every demand of the PKK was accepted but not approved by the prime minister.
[HH] PKK’s bar
The information Elçi provides regarding the protocol is significant in terms of demonstrating “the bar the PKK has set.” He says: “In this protocol, alongside instructions in mother tongue, there were also constitutional guarantees of the Kurdish identity, the self-governance, what the BDP calls ‘democratic autonomy’ of the Kurds, and Öcalan’s house arrest. When I saw the protocol, I said, ‘The state would not sign this.’”
Neşe Düzel asks:
- Isn’t it this protocol the MİT has agreed to?
Elçi answers:
- Yes. They must have agreed to it in talks with Öcalan and have taken it to Kandil to have it approved there. But this is not a thing that the MİT would sign. I said, “The state cannot officially accept such a document. The state takes this and puts it in its archives. It would not put its signature under it for it to become an official document, but it can do, in time, whatever is deemed necessary in the protocol.”
[HH] Settlement with Öcalan?
Elçi mentions a protocol agreement with Öcalan. He discloses the contents. He mentions that the MİT has personally taken the protocol to Kandil and has had it approved. He gives the message that the deal was broken at the level of prime minister. He gives the impression that there was no problem during those stages before it was submitted for the prime minister’s signature.
It is the public’s right to expect a statement from the government’s side in the light of the information provided by Elçi. Since it is said that the mentioned protocol was not signed by the prime minister, it should be seen as the right of the public to learn where the government/state stands, what kind of a framework it anticipates and where it has set the bar.