It was long since evident that arms were going to talk again

Şükrü Küçükşahin - skucuksahin@hurriyet.com.tr

I am one of those who had concluded before the June 12 elections that an era where arms would be talking again was about to begin. When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said recently, “”We will not allow a state, a parallel state, within a state,” it took me back to two months ago.

I am no stranger to these words as I had heard the same said word for word in a conversation two months ago with important staff of Erdoğan’s.
One day later, on Aug. 8, referring to those words, I had written that an image was emerging of Erdoğan, who had said behind closed doors, “The state cannot be managed this way; it cannot continue this way.”
The same Erdoğan also, some three or four days before that said, “Everybody will see what will be done when the time comes,” and before the new command echelon sat in their chairs, he called them for a meeting at the Prime Ministry to make important decisions on terror.

[HH] Staff support done

I had written about the occurrences behind closed doors at that meeting in the Prime Ministry in my Aug. 8 column, and had conveyed that one of the decisions was, “Quick and effective response to terror. This response will be such that the organization will not be able to carry on any acts.”
In that column I had advocated that the new Chief of General Staff and the Commander of Gendarmerie Forces both have a “hawk’s stance” in the Kurdish issue and that Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin was also aligned with them.
(Deputy Prime Minister in charge of terror Beşir Atalay can be regarded as he is not in the same line with them, but contrary to expectations Atalay was not able to become an influential name in the process anyway.)
And now, it could have escaped attention, I am receiving information that the new heads of provincial police departments who have been sent to the region are those names whose nationalist-conservative identities are prominent and who are able to contact Erdoğan directly.
This appointment wave, which came after the more effective usage of police special operational units in the fight against terror, should be seen within the line of the “hawk’s stance.”
This is the point that has been reached two years after President Abdullah Gül had said, “Good things will happen,” and two months after Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç scorned the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) meetings as “They drink tea and coffee and disperse.”
As a matter of fact, this breakup had been experienced in Habur, but time was bought by every means possible including direct talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) so that the elections were terror-free.

[HH] No new breakups in sight

Although I do not agree, I see it as a policy, the “hawk stance,” whether I like it or not; as long as there are no zigzags. Because the most important reason we have ended where we are today is mutual zigzags.
There is no point in asking, since we were to return to this point, why then had the army been pulled back for nine years and now, why it is being sent to operations with more powers.
The solution lies in seeing the picture in the region correctly, that is, putting an effective “policy of putting a wall between the population and the organization” while fighting with terror simultaneously.

We will see what kind of a course the writing process of the new constitution will follow, but I would like to persistently emphasize a longer and a more powerful struggle.
Youngsters and women are very close to the PKK. What lies behind it is the new identity they gain as “young” and “woman.” (Attention: This is something different than the Kurdish identity.)
Where the new terror policy will take the country to because of this solidarity, above all, should be evaluated carefully. Let us hope the issue which is the biggest obstacle for Atatürk’s, the founder of modern Turkey, “contemporary civilization” objective will be solved with minimum damage.
Şükrü Küçükşahin is a columnist for daily Hürriyet in which this piece appeared on Nov. 10. It was translated into English by the Daily News staff.