Öcalan’s photo

CONTRAST CEMIL BAYIK / AYSEL TUGLUK

Following KCK leader Bayık’s announcement about the end of the withdrawal, Aysel Tuğluk, a distinguished pro-Kurdish politician, foiled Bayık’s threat, saying, “The war will not resume in several years to come.”

Öcalan’s photo – By MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE

The visit Selahattin Demirtaş and Pervin Buldan paid to İmralı — i.e., to jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is currently serving a life sentence on İmralı Island off the coast of İstanbul — was critical and had the potential for significant consequences.

Öcalan made balanced statements, leaving much room for hope. If, following this meeting, a photo of Öcalan, taken during the previous visit to İmralı, is published in newspapers, the crisis will be overcome and everything will be on the right track. As is known, photos of Öcalan were taken during the previous visit, but those photos had so far not been delivered to the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). Publishing these photos will lead the public to overcome the pessimism that had dominated the agenda after Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) leader Cemil Bayık announced the end of the withdrawal of PKK militants from Turkish territories.

The gap between the perceptions or messages and the reality is huge. Following KCK leader Bayık’s announcement about the end of the withdrawal, Aysel Tuğluk, a distinguished pro-Kurdish politician, foiled Bayık’s threat, saying, “The war will not resume in several years to come.” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had previously noted that the PKK was trying to manipulate the settlement process with good-cop and bad-cop ploys. In this case, Tuğluk is the good cop and Bayık the bad one. But the truth seems to be buried deeper than that.

The bulk of the bargaining between the PKK and the Turkish Republic is concerned with the Syrian crisis. While it can maintain military influence over the Syrian Kurds, the PKK enjoys only weak social support from Kurds of Syria. The organizations that are linked to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Massoud Barzani of northern Iraq certainly can muster far stronger social backing in Syria than the Democratic Union Party (PYD), an offshoot of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The PKK wants the Turkish state to help it in Syria. The Turkish state, on the other hand, tells the PKK to keep away from Bashar al-Assad and cooperate with the Syrian opposition. Both occurred recently. PYD leader Saleh Muslim visited Turkey twice, and it was reported that the PYD had come to an agreement with the Syrian opposition. In this case, the democratization package, which the government has been mulling over for some time, and Demirbaş’ and Buldan’s critical visit to İmralı can be perceived just as a concrete indication of the progress made behind the scenes. In reality, both sides have their strategic calculations in their minds.

In a letter she sent to Taha Akyol of Hürriyet, Tuğluk said, “The Kurdish side is only taking a strategic approach to the process.” This sentence is proof that we are seeing strategic moves as regards the Kurdish issue. Tuğluk’s words target first the hawkish, pro-violence Kurdish groups that cannot understand the intricacies of politics, and then those who seek excuses for sabotaging the process, saying, “The Turkish state is being divided.” She makes a very critical claim: For several years to come, “war” is not a possibility.

Those who see the PKK’s policies as consisting purely of violence can hardly understand these strategic moves. Tuğluk’s no-war assertion effectively cancels out Bayık’s no-withdrawal announcement and other threats, doesn’t it?

Those who take tactical moves as strategic ones are always lost. The PKK’s main strategy relies primarily on its organizational interests in Syria. The democratization package, which is primarily concerned with the Kurdish issue, the defendants who stand trial in the case against the KCK and education in the mother tongue can all be ignored in the context of the Syria leg of the formula. Only the PKK and the government need tactical moves in order to convince, respectively, its supporters and the opponents of the settlement process. If Öcalan’s photo is published in newspapers in coming days, the government will compromise in order to reinforce Öcalan’s balanced message. In return, the PKK will act to lend support to Tuğluk’s no-war assertion.

http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-326536-ocalans-photo.html