Ordinary Turks Speak About Kurdish Issue Amid Stalemated Peace Talks

 

A peace process between Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been all but sidelined, following a major corruption scandal that erupted last month and which threatens to drown the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  With the Kurdish talks in stalemate, and the future of the AKP in doubt, Rudaw went on the streets of Ankara to solicit the views of common people about what they thought of peace with the Kurds. Many refused to speak as soon as they heard about the topic, among them people who were against any negotiations with the Kurds altogether.

ANKARA, Turkey - “What is the ‘Kurdish problem?’ For me, there was no such thing. It’s the government who gave it that name,” said İbrahim Colak, one of several cab drivers waiting for a client at a dilapidated taxi stand in Ankara's Cankaya neighborhood.

“I think, they poked a sleeping snake,” said Colak, using a common Turkish saying to explain the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) negotiations with Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The talks, mediated by the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), led to a peace process last year. But it soon became deadlocked, with the PKK saying in September it was halting the withdrawal of fighters into bases in the Qandil mountains of the Kurdistan Region because of a lack of reciprocal goodwill gestures by Ankara.

 

“What we had to do was to see the country under one roof and treat people equally, but we failed to manage this,” said Colak, the only one of five drivers waiting at the stand who agreed to speak on the Kurdish issue. “There was no transparency in the process at all,” complained Colak, 41.

He added that the process had raised hopes among Turkey’s large Kurdish minority, and that failure would mean renewed tensions with the Kurds, whom he acknowledged faced disadvantages in Turkey, especially in the southeastern regions of Anatolia.

“Now that the government has started them, the negotiations have to proceed, and if there is a real problem the government should do everything to bring it to an end. But there is one very important condition: This should happen without dividing Turkey,” he said, his voice rising.

For decades, Turkish governments have belittled the Kurds, refusing to recognize their culture or language. Ordinary Turks have been fed a steady diet of anti-Kurdish rhetoric, replete with warnings that what the Kurds want is to divide the country.

“What they are trying to do is to establish a Kurdistan,” said Gulay Ala, a 37-year old accountant from Ankara’s multicultural neighborhood of Sokullu, which is mostly inhabited by people who have migrated from other parts of Turkey.

“There is a big risk that this would lead Turkey with a neighbouring Kurdistan on its eastern and south-eastern soil,” she said.

Ala added that relatives of soldiers killed during the three-decade conflict with the PKK, are not happy about peace talks with a group that has always been portrayed in Turkey as a terrorist organization.

 

“The mothers of the martyrs are very upset about these negotiations. I emphatize with them and I understand why. I hope the peace can be built, but the cost cannot be the lives of those who have fought for the sake of a united Turkey.”

Ala also complained that she was unaware of the details of the negotiations: “Neither side is transparent about the conditions of the negotiations. But they should know, we feel what is at stake here.”

Ercan Gecmez, head of the Haci Bektas Veli Anadolu Cultural Center, a foundation of Anatolian Alevis which is a progressive sect of Islam, said he is among the supporters of the Kurdish peace process. He thinks that all Turks are ready for peace with the Kurds and have expectations for a better, equal and united future.

“The AKP has detected this readiness and will, and has acted accordingly. The people from different backgrounds have given the credit to the AKP for this. They have voted for them, for a better democratic Turkey,” Gecmez said.

But he also voiced reservations, saying that “it looks like the Kurdish resolution changes with the seasons.” In his opinion, the AKP could have taken a more determined approach.

“They could have changed the constitution, the laws accordingly. They have been in power for more than 10 years now. They could have adopted a strong will to solve the Kurdish issue. So far, everything has been stuck in a vicious circle,” he complained.

“The AKP changes moods very often. Talks differ from province to province. The discourse in Diyarbakır is different from the one in Trabzon. This approach creates confusion,” he said.

 

Gecmez also blamed the Kurdish BDP party for failing to meet the expectations of Turkey’s Kurds.

“The Kurdish people have been uneasy with the reconciliation process, which so far has not even reached the phase of negotiations. The BDP could not stand up to the government with strength and determination,” Gecmez opined.

Mert Yasar, an 18-year-old from Batman, another multiethnic and multicultural city in eastern Anatolia populated by Arabs, Turks and Kurds, voiced what has become the common complaint: No one understands where the AKP’s talks with the Kurds are going.

“I lived with Kurds in Batman for years,” said Yasar, an ethnic Arab who two years ago moved with his family to Ankara, where he is now in high school. “I know what peace means to them, to us all. It means a better life, it means welfare,” he said.

“I was very, very happy when I first heard about the peace talks,” he said, complaining that since then there had been little public information.  “I do not hear and know well what kind of talks are taking place. They do not share the details.”

“I have a hard time understanding why the war started, why we have suffered for decades and why we can make peace now but could not before,” he said.

“But now that we have started, we have to finish it. We have to insist that this succeeds,” he stressed.

“Of course, if this cannot happen in one united Turkey, if they want to divide the lands, then maybe we have no choice but to fight,” he said.

 

Then, there are the skeptics, who do not believe that a resolution of Turkey’s Kurdish issue is possible. But that appears to be a minority view.

“Kurdish peace talks have nothing to do with the AKP. It is the USA directing it,” said  Huseyin Andac, a 54-year-old farmer from Yozgat.

“It has always been America doing everything. We have no problem with Kurds,” he said, leaning back in his chair.

Temel Sarac, a 37-year-old real estate agent originally from Sivas, is also among the skeptics, believing that an invisible hand has created problems between the Kurds and Turks.

“According to me a Kurdish resolution has neither started, nor has there been a resolution. We can say it is an ‘irresolution’ process,” he said.

Sarac said he has always wanted the Kurdish people to regain their rights.

 “But there is no resolution process. I think that neither the  Kurdish side or the AKP is sincere about making peace. There have been no concrete steps. They could have taken steps, though. But I think there are hidden agendas behind it.”