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East | TURKEY | Expert: Tamil Solution for PKK Does Not Work

Expert: Tamil Solution for PKK Does Not Work

23/12/2011 04:38:00By WLADIMIR van WILGENBURG

A former Tamil tiger rebel standing guard in a village in Sri Lanka. Photo AFP.

THE HAGUE, the Netherlands — Professor Henri Barkey told Rudaw in an interview that the idea of isolating and weakening the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) will not work.

“A Tamil solution is not in the cards for Turkey,” he said, in reference to Sri Lanka’s fierce military operations that defeated Tamil rebels in 2009, ending a 25-year war. “You can weaken the PKK temporarily, but chances are it will come back stronger.”

Henri Barkey is professor of international relations at Lehigh University. He served as member of the US State Department policy planning staff and intelligence, working primarily on the Middle East, from 1998 to 2000. He has taught at several prominent US universities and wrote several books, among them Turkey’s Kurdish Question with Graham Fuller.

Last Sunday, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay told reporters that military operations, court case and arrests against the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), the alleged civil wing of the PKK, would continue.

“No place is going to be a safe haven for the PKK,” he said.

Other Turkish analysts also suggested that the PKK needed to be weakened in order to reach a solution to the nearly three-decade conflict between Turkey and the Kurdish rebel group, which is a designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Turkey and the European Union.

But Barkey says this is a misguided policy. “You can always weaken an organization temporarily, but when its nationalist organization with a huge [support] base, anything you do is temporary. This unless you do a ‘Tamil solution.’”

Unlike the Tamils, the Kurds have adjoining territories where they can escape to. Therefore a Tamil-like solution is too difficult, says Barkey.

“You can weaken the PKK temporarily, but chances are it will come back stronger.”

“Besides, Turkey is a member of the Western alliance system and that constrains the behaviour of the state. Ironically, were the PKK to be seriously weakened then the chances of a Kurdish spring would increase significantly. I would not be surprised to see civil disobedience in Turkey. In many ways, this is much more damaging to the Turks than the armed struggle.”

Furthermore, Barkey asserts that the Kurdish opening was mismanaged by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and that the celebrations for PKK rebels returning back from their camps in 2009 were not surprising.

“The government did not bring in the Kurdish political parties. It tried to do it in a top to bottom way without consulting others. The government acted with good will but in an arrogant fashion.”

In addition, he thinks there are splits within the PKK as a result of the current government policies.

“There are hardliners and those who want a solution. There is some confusion within the ranks and uncertainty what to do as a result of the government cutting off connections to (jailed PKK leader Abdulla) Öcalan. He has not been allowed to communicate as he used to, often with government connivance, and this created tensions.”

Moreover, tensions have been increasing with the government’s relentless pursuit of the KCK. In Turkey, several thousand are on trial for links to the KCK. The cases and Turkey’s anti-terrorism law have been criticized by human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch for violating rights.

Last Tuesday, another 36 people were detained for being allegedly involved in the "press and propaganda" arm of the KCK. The Saturday before, 20 Kurds were arrested in Siirt.

Barkey told Rudaw that the KCK is an attempt by the PKK to create the infrastructure for an alternative political structure for Kurds, specifically for the day there is a political solution.

“This is very threatening for the government. The PKK is clearly trying to create a de-facto autonomous area.”

But still he thinks the operations against the KCK won’t solve anything.

“People are very frustrated with this. If does not get better, there will be increasing violence. They are trying to intimidate the people at the moment and go after even those two well-respected persons like professor Büsra Ersanli and publisher Ragip Zarakolu. They will not stop at anything to weaken the political arm of the PKK, the BDP, and scare everyone.”

The American analyst says the idea to create an alternative to the PKK never worked. “Even the conservative Kurds who vote for AKP are still Kurdish nationalists. This assumes that the problem is not only the PKK. It is almost easier for the government to talk with the PKK than even address Kurdish demands in general.”

Barkey argues that as far as demands for recognition and basic rights there are not many differences between Kurds who vote for religious parties and Kurds who vote for the secular pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

The American professor even thinks that creating a distance between the PKK and Kurds would create a much bigger nightmare for the government.

“The PKK attacks justify much what the government does. If the PKK stops fighting and were a civil disobedience campaign to start, the government will be facing a far more serious challenge. The Kurds have not shifted to that. The PKK is afraid to sanction such a move for fear of losing control over it.”

Tamil Tigers were defeated with the military power of 9 countries
srilanka
India
Pakistan
China
IRAN
ISRAEL
( USA , UK and Japan – silent supporters )
Tamils will never keep quiet till their NATIONAL aspirations are met.
Long Live Kurd Independence and May GOD Bless them.

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Wladimir van Wilgenburg Wladimir van Wilgenburg studied the BA International Relations and Political History and also finished the two minors Journalism and New Media and Conflict Studies. This year he is busy with his masters degree in Conflict Studies and Human Rights at the University of Utrecht. He has been working as a freelance journalist and analyst for Turkish, Kurdish, Dutch and American institutes and media outlets. Recently he participated in a project of the NGO Pax Christi about the future of the Dutch military.