Strategy of Escalation

In July of this year, the DTP succeeded in fielding a pro-Kurdish fraction in the Turkish parliament, for the first time in the history of the republic. But now the party may be facing a ban because of its political proximity to the PKK. Antje Bauer has the details

photo: AP — Supporters of the DTP are rallying in Nusaybin, displaying pictures of Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the PKK

It seems like a fallback to earlier bad times: Turkey's chief public prosecutor has applied for a ban on the Kurdish party DTP ("Party for a Democratic Society"), claiming it is the legal arm of the armed PKK. Charges are also planned against many of its members.

The grounds for the party ban seem rather abstruse in some cases. The public prosecutor cites, among other things, that one member of the DTP leadership allegedly sent a letter to Prime Minister Erdogan, written in Kurdish.

The party chairman Nurettin Demirtas has been charged with insulting the armed forces, for reading a declaration stating that the current military operations on Kurdish territory were destroying the path to peace.

At the same time, the military is drumming up war – with the support of the media and the major opposition parties, which see Turkey's national unity at risk once again. The military never tires of emphasizing that they are well equipped to invade Iraq and destroy the PKK's camps there.

Meanwhile, though, snow has fallen in the already inaccessible Kurdish territories, and previous incursions into Iraq have done little serious harm to the PKK.

PKK stirring up conflict

The PKK, in turn, has contributed to the escalation, although it had previously held back for several years, by killing a number of Turkish recruits in the previous months.

And the Kurdish party, caught between sympathy with the PKK and a desire for civilian politics, has fanned the flames by recently announcing a new leadership renowned for its close ties to the PKK.

Is history repeating itself? Not quite. Unlike the previous government, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP ("Party for Justice and Development") is not exactly enthusiastic about the idea of invading Iraq.

The government obtained parliamentary approval for the cross-border operation several weeks ago, but Erdogan has yet to issue marching orders.

Nor has he left any room for doubt that he does not welcome the chief prosecutor's intention to ban the DTP. "If we drive them out of parliament we drive them into the mountains (to the PKK)," he said recently.

Cautious liberalisation and democratisation

The AKP government's reluctance to use repression to approach the Kurdish problem is not because the government has any convincing alternative for solving the problem – it plainly does not.

But the government knows very well that the reawakening Kurdish conflict will make or break its political future, or could at least tie its hands.

In recent years, the AKP government has been adjusting the country to EU law, introducing a policy of liberalisation and cautious democratisation seen by the traditional parties and the military as a threat, and restricting the military's political influence.

Last spring, the military reacted by launching a conflict strategy with threats of a putsch, intending to intimidate the electorate into voting against the AKP in the parliamentary elections. But the move turned out to be an own-goal, with the AKP romping home at the polls.

To a certain extent, the current panic over national unity is a deliberate continuation of the strategy of this spring. The Kurdish conflict is the perfect vehicle for the traditional parties to prove their patriotism and the military to put itself into the role of a saviour.

Conflict escalation

And it seems to fit in with the PKK's plans to continue the armed conflict, so as to sell itself as the heroic defender of the Kurdish people – even though the majority of the Kurds voted for the AKP at the last election.

There are at least a few dissenting voiced to be heard from the otherwise apparently closed ranks of the Kurds. In southeast Anatolia, 252 organisations recently signed a document calling for the PKK to lay down its weapons.

On the other side of the battle lines, several former high-ranking members of the military recently admitted that mistakes have been made in dealing with the Kurdish issue. Prime Minister Erdogan can use all the backing he can get.

Antje Bauer

Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire

Qantara.de

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