ISIL and PKK

The perpetrator of the massacre on Istanbul’s İstiklal Avenue this weekend turned out to be from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

My heart went out, the most, for two-and-a-half-year-old Asya Başaran, who now is fighting for her life with her tiny body in the intensive care unit. Her mother, father and 7-year-old sister Elçin were also injured, but thank God, they are not in critical condition. I hope so much that little Asya will also survive. 

Killing even babies is a form of violence that we have seen since the first attacks of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), in 1984.   

In terms of the destruction psychology and violence they use, there is no difference between the PKK, ISIL and the People’s Liberation Party-Front of Turkey (THKP-C). 

I can almost hear the objection of Kurdish nationalists who sympathize with the PKK. They would argue the liberation of the Kurdish people. But then another would argue the liberation of the Muslims; they can talk about the Israeli atrocities in Gaza. As a matter of fact, the suicide bomber on İstiklal blew himself up after following innocent Israeli tourists visiting our country. 

The marginal leftist terrorists, on the other hand, are saying that they are “fighting imperialism.”   

When the blood of innocent people, children and young lovers are shed, then the color of “the spell” called either by “the cause” or “the revolution” does not change the brutality. For this reason, it is extremely important that violence should be rejected in principle. Of course, the ideological programming that I call “the spell” is also very important. 

The ISIL members who have been caught were all from Turkey. “Sleeping ISIL cells” are mentioned.

With what kind of a mentality did they become death robots? This is an exceptionally significant issue. These words of the head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) Professor Mehmet Görmez criticizing ISIL give us an answer key for analysis: “This mentality that regards religious texts as legal documents has bred wrong outcomes such as generating pressure, violence and cruelty in the name of religion…” (Dec. 8, 2014.) 

Everybody who has an Islamic sensitivity, especially those who regard Islam as a political ideology, should pay utmost attention to this diagnosis. This responsibility falls on “Islamist” writers before anybody else. 

Meanwhile, in the Kurdish movement, the essential moral and ideological issue lies on the subject of democracy. The PKK and the top management of the movement on Kandil, the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), do not allow democracy even in the political parties in the Kurdish movement. They regard parties such as the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) as their “orderlies” in the parliament. The warlords in Kandil sabotaged the resolution process for this reason. 

Ms. Aysel Tuğluk has explained the problem in the Kurdish movement as such: “Lacking a horizon, a tendency of pressure and violence, ignoring the other side and from time to time, totalitarian stances and the disease of populism… In all these aspects, as Kurdish politicians, we must prove again that we have matured.” (Habertürk, Sept. 6, 2014)

Also Mr. Altan Tan said, “Now, we have to make a decision,” and expressed this essential moral and political issue ahead of the Kurdish movement in his interview to Ahmet Hakan: “Are we going to build the democratic Republic of Turkey, or are we going to disintegrate by warring, fighting and segmenting?” (Hürriyet, Sept. 2, 2015) 

The picture is very clear: Is it a democratic method or is it a totalitarian method, in other words, terror? Can the HDP today open such a debate and talk freely against violence? 

This is an exceptionally important political problem and it facilitates the PKK by nursing it with blood. 
I do not think the formula of “Those who are not with us are supporting terror,” creates the expected and desired effect. 

Those who believe in democracy should be called to take their place beside liberal democracy and together demand the democratization of the Kurdish movement. 

Armed struggle against terror will indeed continue. Alongside this, if a democratization dynamic can be launched in the Kurdish movement, then both the terror factor will start to weaken and the Kurdish issue will find a natural solution path.