Is the PKK your hitman?

There is a fancy-shmancy understanding that some are trying to sell to us as an “analysis.”
It is roughly along the lines of the following: “The Kurdish issue cannot be solved and peace cannot come to Turkey if democratization is not consolidated at all levels.” The intellectual charisma is mind-blowing. But once you scratch a little, something rather devilish comes out of it instead of something benign. This is because it does not uphold human life above political and ideological conflicts. For instance: the attempt to block the road in Lice cost two lives.  While there are some grievances in some places; those voicing this intellectual dupe are full of joy. “Didn’t we tell you; see what happened?” There is the unbearable joy of feeling vindicated.

- The feeling of the “peace process cannot come about without fulfilling the demands of white Turks,” reveals itself.

- While they are meaning to say, “Without solving the cemevi  issue, without the Alevis getting their democratic rights, the Kurds in the mountains should not shake hands with the Justice and Development Party (AK Party);” they are caught right there.

- While they are trying hard with all their might to give this message covertly, “Before the AK Party is dissolved and removed from the political scene, the PKK should not lay down arms; this would be a grave mistake,” the place they are desperately suffering at is right here.

- The feeling of “What if Öcalan strikes an agreement with the government, what if this business is over, what if actually peace comes, then what will happen to us?” here now transforms into an unconcealed joy. Then there is no analysis, logic, ethics or consistency; forget all of them!

Objecting is a legitimate democratic right for everybody who is unhappy with the government for this or that reason. But is resorting to guns a way of asking for your rights? We see around us some who have been agonizing since the beginning of the peace process: “Peace should not come now! PKK should not lay down arms now! Those in the mountain should not rush to come back.” One of their striking sentences is this: “The only guarantee Kurds have are guns. Are you mad? Think twice. If you lay down arms; you won’t have any negotiating power left against the state.”

The man who started the Kurdish armed movement said “the era of guns is over.” He is developing a project to turn the organization he established into an unarmed movement. Those who sit on their comfortable chairs are lecturing the PKK and its leader, Abdullah Öcalan, about armed struggle.
They will not give up the struggle but the arms; they will ask for their rights within legitimate politics; they will seek the jurisdiction to be presented and to govern at the ballot box. Those have been leading an armed struggle for more than 30 years have come to that point, but the fact that they will come down from the mountains worries those in the cities who are giving a so-called struggle for democracy.

It is not for nothing that Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtaş objected to those who were concerned by the peace process. “They are asking us, ‘Why aren’t you attacking?’ We are no one’s hitman.” I don’t understand those on the Kandil Mountain. Why are they not giving a sharp answer like Demirtaş to these secret warmongers?

Why aren’t they saying:

- If you love the mountains with such passion; go ahead yourself; head to the mountain.

- If you have some concerns; voice them openly and fight for it and pay the cost.