Following the “Peace and Democratic Society Call” made by Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan on February 27, the “Peace and Democratic Society Group,” consisting of 30 PKK members, destroyed their weapons. After these developments, the Parliament established the “Commission on National Solidarity, Fraternity, and Democracy”, which continues its work by listening to different groups. Meanwhile, threats toward North and East Syria persist. In recent statements, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan targeted North and East Syria with talk of “military intervention.”

 

Sociologist and political scientist Prof. Dr. Doğu Ergil shared his assessment of recent events with Mezopotamya Agency (MA).

 

‘THE COMMISSION HAS THREE TASKS’

 

Ergil underlined the importance of discussing the issue in the parliamentary commission: “All political organizations and movements in Turkey will define what the problem is. This is very important. Until the problem is defined, we cannot even name the approach, whether it is a ‘process’ or a ‘solution’. After, solutions will be developed and then consensus will be sought. Consensus may not be reached, and the process may evolve differently. But if it is, these will be reflected in laws, institutions, and Turkey’s governance structure. There will be changes in local administrations. Therefore, this commission has three duties; first, agree on a definition. Second, develop solutions based on that definition. Third, reveal what administrative, legal, political, and cultural changes those proposals will lead to.”

 

‘WE CANNOT PROGRESS IF WE GET STUCK’

 

Ergil highlighted the vital importance of listening to relatives of those who lost their lives during the conflict: “No society that does not end its mourning can build a future. Turkish side says, ‘I have so many martyrs, veterans, wounded. How can there be a solution without justice for them?’ The Kurdish side says ‘So many of my children were killed, villages burned, displaced, and wronged.’ Every solution starts by ending mourning. You carry it inside you and do everything so it never happens again. Then you sit down and negotiate with what was once your enemy. It can be a painful process, but this was done in South Africa, for example.”

 

‘DEMANDS MUST BE MET THROUGH POLITICS’

 

Stressing that Turkey needs to make legal reforms for the process to move forward, Ergil said: “There are knots that depend on mutual consensus. These must be solved without getting stuck. The process must flow. This is only possible by abandoning prejudices like, ‘We were wronged by those people, so it cannot work.’ But you must know your goal. It is not just about disarming. Why did that group take up arms and wage armed struggle for nearly half a century? You must understand this to prevent recurrence. The causes must be removed. You will try to meet demands that were made with weapons through politics so that weapons will never be used again.”

 

THREATS TO NORTH AND EAST SYRIA

 

Ergil noted that some groups oppose the peace process aimed at resolving the Kurdish issue through democratic means and are developing policies against it: “We face a serious contradiction in Syria now. While consensus is being achieved in Turkey, if you try to prevent Kurds from gaining a special status and becoming a power centre in the new Syria, how can you fully reconcile with Turkey’s Kurds? How do you convince them on this? There is a strange contradiction here.”

 

Pointing out that groups targeting North and East Syria harm the process, Ergil said: “There is a struggle for freedom and autonomy there. Because in Damascus, a coalition of registered terrorists rules. Terrorists who behead people and traffic women have formed a government. The US especially supports building a unitary political structure around this government. But a unitary structure cannot be established without resolving conflicts and reaching consensus among Alevis, Kurds, Druze, and Arabs. So what will emerge? A political structure born from their unity. A structure that erases and denies them is impossible. Someone must say, ‘Wake up, what you did was wrong,’ or the process in Turkey will be sabotaged.”

 

‘FIRST, A RECONCILIATION WITH THE KURDS IS NEEDED’

 

Ergil concluded: “Instead of shrinking by losing Kurds, Turkey can achieve sought-after strategic depth in the Middle East together with Kurds. It has not achieved this through Sunni Islam, culturally, economically, or militarily. But it can gain a different depth through Kurds. For this, it must first reconcile with the Kurds. Kurds in neighbouring countries, influenced by the large Kurdish population in Turkey, will also join this political unity. I am not talking about merging with the state, but including Kurdish formations there in this coalition. Until now, Turkey has always lived with fear that Kurds will cause harm and that their gains will turn into separatism, and this fear has been constantly fuelled.”

 

MA / Mehmet Aslan - Melik Varol