Haberler

In all settlement areas where it gained significant influence, the YDG-H then embarked upon a socio-political cleansing operation. Its mission of “building autonomy” was and is really a euphemism for the organization’s task of clearing the non-PKK population out of the Southeast. Coupled with the state’s weakness in preserving law and order and protecting citizens in the Southeast, the people of the region have been laid at the mercy of this armed urban gang.

The Kurds are abiding by political realism in their search for a way out. People are aware of all the power relations, the costs and the opportunities.

Some calls for “peace” are given to some very harsh name-calling for politicians. Even that might be regarded as normal. But to be able to issue a call for peace without even mentioning the PKK has to be regarded as a “uniquely Turkish advocacy for peace.”

In these circumstances, in order to foresee what the coming weeks and months are likely to bring, it becomes important to have a sense of what the people in the Southeast might be thinking and feeling, what criteria they might be judging the two sides by, how they might be reading politics and the region.

In the midst of Turkey’s seemingly unending election atmosphere, to attribute the collapse of the truce and the return to armed conflict to the president (who has actually been the architect of the Solution Process) is not an analysis but a political preference. But the elephant in the room is still sitting there and will keep sitting there regardless of which party happens to be in government.