Agenda

Author: Prof. Dr. Ramazan Gözen

The PKK terrorist attacks in Turkey have surged in June. More than 20 Turkish soldiers were killed in the attacks in İskenderun, Şemdinli and İstanbul and at least as many were also wounded. The three attacks in particular carried the issue of terrorism to the top of the national agenda again, plunging the Turkish people into deep grief over the scores of losses they caused. Firm reaction has come to the attacks from within and outside of Turkey. Rallies were held to protest the attacks and terrorism and PKK were condemned.The ceremony held in the eastern province of Van for those killed in the attacks was attended by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ministers, bureacrats and the ambassadors of 17 EU countries. US Ambassador to Turkey, James Jeffrey said intelligence sharing between Turkey and his country as part of the fight against terrorism was ongoing as planned. All these developments ignited once again the debates on how Turkey could tackle PKK terrorism. We can assess these debates under three points of discussion.

Professor Dr.Ramazan Gözen of Ankara's Çankaya University has this assessment on the subject.

The first point of discussion is on why PKK terrorism has increased to such an extent after a long pause. We believe that it has to do with PKK's assertion that it is still powerful enough to exercise quite some influence on Turkish politics and has a strong presence. While many reforms and developments in Turkey have made a favourable impact on the cultural and social lives of our Kurdish citizens, the interest and attention in the PKK has started waning. These developments which we may briefly refer to as democratization have strengthened the faith of our citizens in south-east Turkey that their problems can be resolved. They bolstered the hopes for individual and regional problems to be sorted out through democratic channels such as peace, dialogue and cooperation. Although the democratic initiative launched as a state project has not as yet yielded the desired outcome, it has at least rolled out a solution-oriented process.

It is highly likely that this process with the correction of its drawbacks will continue in the future because everyone in Turkey knows very well that there is need for economic, social, political and judicial arrangements for terrorism to be brought to an end and wants solid steps taken in this regard. The only side which does not want it is the PKK terror organization and its supporters. Resolving regional problems through democratization and creating a success out of this process will spell an end to the PKK terror organization whose presence is based on weapons and violence. Therefore, PKK and its supporters are continuously resorting to attacks in a bid to maintain their existence in their own setting.

That is why Turkey has to continue waging its struggle against terrorists with its security forces on the one hand and carry on with the democratization process on the other. Increasing cooperation with everyone participating or willing to participate in the democratic process and staging an appropriate combat against those aspiring to undermine this process is imperative. An important area of this struggle is Iraq and its northern part. As is known, there has been a US-supported cooperation for the last two years brewing between Turkey and Iraq and the north of Iraq. This cooperation has a security dimension as it has economic, commercial, social and energy dimensions,which has brought about a serious rapprochement in these areas between Turkey and the Barzani-Talabani administration in the north of Iraq. Barzani's three-day visit to Ankara and İstanbul only a short while ago attests to this rapprochement. Turkish officials told Barzani in Ankara that joint struggle against PKK must be continued and Barzani agreed. It wouldn't be a mistake to say that PKK attacks are aimed at impeding this process of cooperation. The unease of the PKK terror organization holed up in the north of Iraq and in Mount Kandil over the developing relations between Turkey and Iraq can also be explained in the same way, which is to say that Iraq's increased cooperation with Turkey and its contributions to resolving the problem are a serious challenge to PKK policies of terror and violence. We have to admit at this point that PKK terrorism is an issue going beyond the will of both Turkey and Iraq. The best method to implement vis a vis this problem is to render even more effective the three-party security mechanism between Turkey, the US and Iraq. Getting this mechanism to function properly obviously needs the support of international actors. So, PKK and the issue of terrorism is something whose international dimension should never be ignored.

When we look at the international dimension of terrorism, we find ourselves addressing a two-level group, namely the regional countries and the non-regional big countries. Prime Minister Erdoğan's statement in the wake of recent attacks which focused on PKK being a sub-contractor directed attentions to the question of " whose sub-contractor is PKK ? " Although the Prime Minister stopped short of giving a name, eyes were set on international actors as to who the real boss could be.

We have seen that, owing to this very allegation Prime Minister Erdoğan made,Turkey has received massive international support. Besides the neighbouring countries Iran and Syria, the EU states and institutions showed stern and symbolically important reaction, conveying the message with official declarations that they stand by Turkey. Much more important than all of that was the support from the United States reaffirming the continuation of sharing intelligence information with Turkey.

There is no doubt the most critical support of all was that of the US because PKK terrorists are holed up in American-occupied Iraq. The US is responsible for that as much as the Iraqi actors are. The US, even if it genuinly wants so, may not be capable of ridding the region of PKK terrorists in the short run, which weakness has already been admitted by US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey.

However, if the US ramps up pressure on Barzani and the other Iraqi actors, it will most probably pave the way for PKK terrorists and their colloborators to be driven out of Iraq. This pressure can bring about the desired result with also Turkey's support.