KurdistanObserver.com

Reconciliatory Tone In Diyarbakir Speech, But ...

Ilnur Cevik
ilnurcevik@yahoo.com

Anatolian  May 8, 2006

For a whole week we were deeply anticipating Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Diyarbakir speech. It was going to be his first trip to the southeastern provincial capital since August 2005 when he declared there's a Kurdish problem in Turkey.

Since then there's been a hot controversy brewing in Turkey over whether there really is a Kurdish problem and what should be done about it. There's also debate even within the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party on whether Erdogan made a mistake by making such a statement. Erdogan himself has lamented that he's unhappy at having made the statement, stressing that Kurdish politicians in Turkey failed to respond to his gesture.

Since August 2005 the prime minister has hardly made a move to do "something" about the Kurdish problem. On the contrary, when early this year European Union ambassadors asked him what he'd done about the Kurdish problem since August 2005 Erdogan got angry and argued with them ...

So people expected "something" from him during his trip to Diyarbakir to address the provincial convention of the AK Party. They expected him to fill in the blank spaces that have been left unattended for several months. But the prime minister decided not to fish in troubled waters and played it safe this time. He made no reference to the Kurdish problem during his speech to the provincial convention held at the local stadium where he addressed 20,000 party followers.

The prime minister set a reconciliatory tone, saying the people of Diyarbakir had acted with common sense and hadn't fallen for provocation. He said the public had opted for peace and calm and commended them. He said that all citizens are brothers and sisters irrespective of their ethnic origin.

So the prime minister, in essence, tried to pump up morale but gave no prescriptions on how to overcome the illness.

This may look fine today but it's not sufficient. The people of the region have real problems and need real solutions. Words and promises will hardly do the trick.

The ongoing military operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have turned the southeastern region into a military zone which, in turn, has created a tense atmosphere in which people feel the footsteps of authoritarian rule approaching. Erdogan should have told the public that the operations aren't directed against them and are for their own safety. He should have given guarantees that the end result will not be authoritarian rule and repression for the ordinary man on the street.

The European Union is already sounding the alarm that the current operations may result in an unwanted situation where Turkey's relations with Brussels enter difficult times. Erdogan should realize that Turkey can no longer afford to disregard the realities of the southeast and turn a deaf ear to EU warnings. The prime minister may have saved the day in Diyarbakir but the real issues remain in the air and that's not healthy.