Turkey: Barzani's Visit And The Settlement Process

The visit Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, will pay on Saturday to Diyarbakir with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is being debated in the media.

The arguments made are miles away from explaining the true importance and depth of the settlement process. The remarks Ahmet Türk of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) made were seen as a sort of "remonstration" because Barzani is visiting Diyarbakir at the invitation of Erdogan, not of the BDP. Türk claimed that the ruling party invited Barzani in order to boost its votes in the upcoming elections, not with the intention of fostering the settlement process. On the other hand, it was also argued that the government is trying to replace the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, who is serving a life sentence in a prison on Imrali island, off the Istanbul coast, with Barzani as an addressee in the settlement process.

It was perhaps Leyla Zana of the BDP who adopted the truest approach to the claims about the government's plans to boost its votes, the BDP's uneasiness about Barzani's acceptance of Erdogan's invitation and other claims. Let me remind the reader that Zana enjoys a certain weight and clout in pro-Kurdish politics and was manhandled by police out of Parliament and taken to the Ulucanlar prison on charges of speaking Kurdish in Parliament in 1991; she served 10 years in prison for this. Let me also note that before the last round of the settlement process started, Zana stated last year that she believes only Erdogan could solve the Kurdish issue as he was a powerful and popular leader.

Concerning Barzani's visit, Zana said: "I hope it will make a positive contribution to the process. No one should approach this matter with shortsightedness. We are going through a period in which Kurds should stop competing with each other and start to know and complement each other. This is a message for everyone. Anyone can have a different perspective, but if we value democracy and democratic processes, then everyone should look at his own democratic mentality. No one should see this visit as solely guided by election plans. What matters is the process, which should be made permanent. Everyone will benefit from it. There will be no loser. This joint visit should be hailed."

What the BDP has failed understand

Apparently, the BDP has failed to grasp the supra-political importance of putting an end to the 30-year conflict that has claimed the lives of 40,000 people and in which neither the state nor the PKK has gained an upper hand over the other. Why should the government nurture elections-oriented aims in arranging such a meeting in Diyarbakir and making remarkable statements? Suppose it had such an aim. Why would it be wrong, from a political perspective? On this historic day, famous Kurdish singer Sivan Perwer, who has been in exile for the last 37 years, will come to Diyarbakir and perform a duet with another Kurdish singer, Ibrahim Tatlises. Doesn't this achievement alone deserve appreciation?

And the real question is why every positive step regarding the settlement process should play into the hands of the government. This is because it is true. Indeed, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the BDP have failed, and continue to fail, to fulfill their responsibilities regarding this matter. Erdogan and Öcalan have emerged as the two dynamic actors in this process. With their will, the process is making progress despite the obstacles. So, is it rational to be jealous of the political gains made from the resulting peace when you have not made the necessary contributions to it?

The claim that the government intends to replace Barzani with Öcalan as an addressee in the settlement process is actually such a nonsensical argument that we shouldn't be bothered to discuss. Öcalan is the indisputable leader of the PKK and pro-PKK people. Barzani has expressed his support for the process since the beginning. Moreover, the process is still underway despite a number of serious changes in the circumstances, such as the Paris killings, the Gezi Park protests and the Syrian crisis. We need to assess Öcalan's recent statement that the peace process is on "thin ice" in the light of People's Democracy Party (HDP) deputy Ertugrul Kürkçü's remarks that "luckily enough, during the last meeting, Öcalan told the BDP parliamentary group deputy chairmen and HDP Deputy Co-Chair Sirri Süreyya Önder that he has given the government extra time [to take] new steps toward the settlement and will continue to assess the situation over the next four months and, during this time, he won't allow the process to be blocked. But how long will Öcalan continue to shoulder this process? It is our responsibility to ensure there are no clashes. Indeed, this war harms not only Kurds but other people in Turkey as well."

Moreover, Öcalan conveyed the message that he had a very productive meeting with the state's delegation and told Kandil -- the PKK leaders in camps located in the Kandil mountains of northern Iraq -- to wait for the results of this meeting.

However, the BDP delegation censored Öcalan's statement, telling the general public that Öcalan had said, "The process is on a knife's edge." Days later, we happened to learn Öcalan's full remarks accidentally, from Kürkçü. Since Jan/ 3, when the process kicked off, the BDP has been censoring Öcalan's moderate remarks, only divulging his harsh messages. It is hard to understand the rationale behind this.

Since the start of the process, we have been hearing the propaganda "This process will not work" or "The process has been aborted" or "It is too late to take steps." But for the last 11 months, no one has died in clashes and Erdogan and Öcalan say that the process is and will remain underway despite problems. Even during the last meeting, Öcalan gave the government four months so that no problems will emerge before the elections.

Similar processes have been aborted

It wouldn't be rational for these two actors to pretend an aborted process is underway. We know from our recent past how similar processes have tended to be aborted. For example, the PKK attacked a military outpost in Diyarbakir's Silvan district in July of 2011, killing 13 Turkish soldiers and undermining the unknown secret talks the Turkish state had been conducting with some PKK leaders in Oslo under British mediation. Thus, the clashes resumed.

BDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtas made the following assessment about the process. "Although the ongoing process has not been sufficiently clear for us, it has been continued with more rigor and more rationality than previous ones. … For the first time in these processes, the Turkish military is complying with the cease-fire. A state delegation backed by the prime minister has been conducting talks with Öcalan," he said.

So, it is really impossible to understand the reluctance regarding the settlement process and even the efforts to undermine it. In this process, the government has been doing what everyone has been telling the state to do for years. As Zana put it, no one will lose in peace but benefit from it.

Yet, unfortunately, dislike for Erdogan hinders cool-headed assessment of the settlement process. And, as you may notice, the BDP frequently gets lost in this dilemma. Consequently, its competition with the government and its dislike for Erdogan force it to stand against peace. Yet it cannot explain this to the general public. It is for this reason that public support for peace is the greatest thing ensuring the process continues.

Source: Today Zaman