PM should apply his own advice to Assad, BDP says

Göksel Bozkurt / Serkan Demirtaş ANKARA

Kışanak says the government should take on a political will to solve the Kurdish issue instead of giving the responsibility to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

Turkey’s decades-old Kurdish question would be solved if Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan applied as little as 10 percent of the advice he gave to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on democratization, a senior Kurdish politician has said.

“We would not have any problems left [concerning the Kurdish issue] if Prime Minister Erdoğan would implement only 10 percent of what he advised to Assad. But in Turkey Mr. Erdoğan does the contrary of what he deems correct for Syria,” Gültan Kışanak, co-chairperson of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), told the Hürriyet Daily News in an interview.

The people of Syria and other Arab Spring countries revolted against autocratic administrations and it is normal to support them, said Kışanak, adding the Turkish government should take on a political will to solve the Kurdish issue instead of giving the responsibility to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

Kışanak’s statement came at a moment when the MİT’s chief Hakan Fidan became the subject of a judicial investigation due to the intelligence organization’s role in the Kurdish problem as well as unveiled meetings of him with senior Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members in Oslo.

“MİT’s job is to gather intelligence, not conducting negotiations to solve a political issue. The Kurdish problem in Turkey and the Ireland Republican Army are sometimes compared. The problem in England was solved after [former Prime Minister] Tony Blair took on political responsibility,” pointed out the BDP leader.

Kışanak criticized the government for diffusing paranoia to society by spreading claims the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was still the target of a clandestine organization, with all its opponents forming an anti-AKP group. “The ruling party stance is making citizens paranoid. They are looking for Ergenekon plots everywhere. All problems are being identified as Ergenekon plots. The government cannot continue being ruled with this paranoia,” she said.

Thousands under arrest

Kışanak also detailed the BDP’s road map, revealing they would continue to make their societal demands visible through rallies and protests, adding they would continue insisting on democratic politics despite being under serious pressure from the ruling party.

“The prisons are bursting. We had to appoint six different provincial chairpersons in Mardin in the last months as all of them were arrested. They’re adding new wards every month to the Bakırköy female prison. Two people are sharing one bed,” said Kışanak, emphasizing the last wave of Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) operations raised the number of those arrested to 6,200. The KCK is an alleged urban wing of the outlawed PKK.

The new constitution that Turkey is in preparations to draft is crucial to solve the Kurdish issue and the BDP will do everything in its power to lend its support despite the fact the current situation did not give them very much hope, said Kışanak.

“The AKP is transferring its shortcomings to other places. We will not accept this again. We will be a part of the Constitution [Conciliation] Commission to the very end. If anyone leaves the table, it should be the AKP,” said the BDP leader.