Dealing with Ocalan Not Enough For Erdogan
Kadri Gursel writes that whether the Turkish government’s intention is to stall for time with Ocalan to secure another violence-free election period or whether it is truly an intention to solve the Kurdish issue, the task of the AKP is a formidable one.
The AKP government has revealed that it has been in secret talks with the PKK’s founding leader Abdullah Ocalan, now serving a life sentence, aiming at PKK giving up its arms.
This is not a surprising development for those who understand that 2013 will be the year compelling Turkey to take steps to silence the guns.
Turkey is under pressure of time for two reasons: First is the regionalization of the Kurdish issue because of Syrian events. The first consequence of this trend is that Turkey’s Kurdish issue is not anymore a bilateral affair between the state of Turkey and the PKK.
As of now, the Baath regime in Syria, the Syrian Kurds and of course the PYD which is the PKK’s extension in that country, Maliki government in Baghdad, Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq and Iran are all third parties that can have more bearing than before on the progress of Turkey’s Kurdish issue.
