A fog lifts over Turkey鈥檚 rift with Kurds
In the Middle East, reconciliation between warring factions, either ethnic or religious, often comes hard. In Turkey, however, small steps in recent weeks have pointed to an end of a four-decade war. They offer a glimpse into a transition to peace that might be able to balance justice and mercy.
On Friday, the Kurdistan Workers鈥� Party, designated widely as a terrorist group and known as PKK, began to get rid of its weapons and to disband. The public ceremony came nearly four months after the PKK鈥檚 imprisoned leader, Abdullah 脰calan, called for an end to the goal of an independent state for Kurds 鈥� who make up 18% to 20% of Turkey鈥檚 population 鈥� and instead urged the seeking of greater Kurdish rights through democratic means.
On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo臒an welcomed the start of what may be a long peace process. He plans a commission to ensure the group is dismantled and then integrated into politics. 鈥淭urks and Kurds are embracing each other in friendship,鈥� he said.
In a message that could lead to national healing, Mr. Erdo臒an admitted that past Turkish governments have made mistakes by using 鈥渨rongful鈥� practices. He listed them off: 鈥淭he unsolved murders were one of them. Diyarbak谋r Prison [for PKK inmates] was one of them. The villages that were burned down, the people forced to flee in a single night, the mothers who couldn鈥檛 speak Kurdish with their children in prison.鈥�
Much still needs to be done to start a dialogue among survivors of a war that killed an estimated 40,000 people. In addition, Mr. Erdo臒an is under suspicion of merely using the peace process to win Kurdish political support in order to change the constitution as a way to stay in power. 鈥淩esolving [the PKK conflict] will require serious democratisation, while Erdo臒an鈥檚 desire to remain in power requires Turkey to remain an authoritarian regime,鈥� Mesut Ye臒en, a researcher at the Reform Institute, an Istanbul think tank, told the Financial Times.
A dialogue to mutually expose past atrocities is an essential step in achieving accountability. Yet it can also leave room for leniency in cases of remorse by perpetrators of violence. 鈥淭urkey has gained significant momentum to reconcile with itself and, to some extent, with its history,鈥� wrote scholar Mensur Akg眉n in Karar news.
鈥淔or this momentum to continue, continuous action is needed,鈥� he added, 鈥渟eparating violence from politics and bringing it into democratic platforms.鈥�
