Does Turkish Government Come to an Impasse to Prevent Terror?

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Party (AKP). Because Kurdish problem have not be able to solve for almost 40 years; it has caused to die over 30,000 people; nationalism against Kurds has become widespread; and many Turks think that Kurds are traitors. Even though majority of people in Turkey do not want to continue terrorist attacks, their minds are full of terrible memories. For example, the PKK has killed their children, including babies. If this whole process of direct talks with the PKK will fail, it can turn out to become the self-destruction for Justice and Development Party.

On the other hand, if direct peace talks with the PKK ends in serious success, the peace process will definitely have created a new Turkey, and current Turkish government will gain ever so much political credit. As a country that provide social peace can use their resources much more productively to gain sustainable improvement.

However, The PKK has not kept its words. During the peace process, according to the Turkish Interior Ministry, the initiative remains moderately successful with about 20% of PKK members withdrawing from Turkey; The PKK has not left its weapons and has held terrorist attack; It abducted deputies who make statements against the organization; It has implemented sanctions on businesses that do not support the PKK; It has also given priority to organize in cities that particularly Kurds population is concentrated. It has organized a great number of molotov cocktail attacks in many cities.

For all these reasons that mentioned above, Turkish government has considered to stop direct peace negotiation with the PKK, recently. However, both Turkish government and The PKK realize that whether or not to continue this negotiate will impact on future of government. If negotiations stopped, PKK would escalate violence, including bombings in civilian areas, and this situation would be perceived as a big failure about current government. More importantly, people in Turkey would lose their hope about social peace and division between Turk and Kurd would get deeper.

In my opinion, it is necessary to provide more democratic right all ethnic groups or all citizens in Turkey. Equity is the basic condition of become community in a country. Human cannot choose own race. I agree with government’s democratic opening decisions and direct peace negotiation with the PKK and the PKK’s imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan. This is crucial for Turkey to provide social peace, again. However, this negotiation should be fulfilled seriously. Government should not allow the PKK to exploit for reorganization in this process. Unfortunately, general democratic reforms will no longer satisfy the Kurdish movement, and they will request autonomy in south-east Turkey. The PKK is stalling government to strengthen its military and civil organizations. It will never abandon purpose that create an independent Kurdish state. Conducting the peace process has been much more difficult for government day by day. The outcomes of peace negotiation can be serious for government and Turkey that even changing the administrative character of the existing regime in Turkey.

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