Assessments
It’s perhaps high time to make a realistic evaluation of the problem we have.
Emotions are high. The nation is in deep pain, mourning for the fallen sons. People have taken to the streets, demonstrating their anger all around the country with the separatist terrorists as well as those who have been sheltering, aiding and abetting the gang…
Anguish is great and so is the anger, frustration and the demand from the Turkish state to take a firm punitive action “at any cost” against the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorists, as well as northern Iraqi local leader Massoud Barzani, who is considered an accomplice of the PKK atrocities inside Turkey. Neither Turkey, nor the people demonstrating in the streets of the country believe that the PKK could have such mobility, operability and ‘’despicableness'’ without moral and material support from Barzani who has been defying all of Turkey’s calls to condemn the separatist gang as a terrorist organization but instead advising Ankara to engage in a dialogue for peace with it.
Though one may question whether an operation that would also be aimed at Barzani would be within the scope of the authorization the Turkish government received from Parliament last week, it was clear in Sunday evening’s statement issued after a security summit chaired by President Abdullah Gül and attended by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Chief of General Staff General Yaşar Büyükanıt and all top commanders of the country that a possible Turkish operation would not be limited to crashing PKK. Otherwise, why did the statement say “Although Turkey respects Iraq’s territorial integrity, it will not tolerate aiding and abetting of terrorism and it will not be deterred from paying the price to protect its rights, indivisible integrity and citizens.” The message ought to be clear for everyone.
But, is that indeed the aim of the escalation in PKK attacks? Is the terrorist gang and Barzani provoking Turkey to such undertake such an operation, pull Turkey into the Iraq quagmire and prepare with bloodshed the legitimacy grounds for a Kurdish state?
This is one of the assessments speculated in Ankara nowadays. What is difficult to understand, however, is the unfortunate incapability of people like this writer to understand to what purpose the intelligence apparatus of this country exists if there is fatigue in identifying the aim of the gang and to develop counter strategies?
It has been our belief all along that if there ever would be a Kurdish state in the region, it would be established by Turkey itself as a Kurdish state cannot survive despite Turkey. Is Turkey now being pushed toward doing that with the blood of our Mehmets?
The aim behind the government’s request from Parliament for authorization to dispatch troops to operation against PKK in northern Iraq was to demonstrate Turkey’s determination on the issue and push the U.S. on the one hand and the central Iraqi administration on the other to act in cooperation with Turkey against the separatist gang. For that strategy to succeed, Turkey needed some time. However, the latest PKK ambush, its killing of 12 soldiers and taking hostage eight of our sons was such a serious development that it stripped Turkey of that card. Does the gang aimed at pulling Turkey into Iraq and bringing it at loggerheads with the U.S. there?
Questions and more questions
There should not be a letup in anti-terrorism efforts, but we have to be realistic at the same time. People who are questioning whether a 25th or so operation of the Turkish military into northern Iraq hideouts of the PKK in the last two decades would bring about concrete results are being branded as either traitors or of being pro-U.S. Whereas, it is a fact which is even spelled out by senior generals that a definitive success against the gang with military measures should not be even considered. For success in the anti-terrorism drive Turkey must deploy civilian measures, including wider democracy, recognition of enhanced cultural rights for the Kurdish population and perhaps even a new description of Turkish nationality. People expressing these views, however, are being scorned in today’s Turkey. Does the PKK aim at highlighting these and stirring up fresh controversy in the society with the latest attacks?
The worst is that there is a tendency to condemn those who ask the question “How did it happen that the gang can operate in the country with as large as a group of 200 terrorists, infiltrate into military installations, blow up a bridge, kill 12 soldiers and escape with eight hostages?” and complain whether there is a serious security lapse” of being engaged in efforts to hurt the image of the security forces. But, could someone explain how such a thing could happen?
Perhaps it is high time to brave ourselves and look into the mirror. Perhaps, without undermining the importance of the situation we face today, we realize that the problem is not just the existence of the PKK in northern Iraq.