Politicized Nevruz in Turkey

• 03.22.2015, 23:15
• Greta Avetisyan
•  Region,  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World,  Analytics

Kurdish peace process… Is the history repeating or is there a hope for this problem to be eventually solved? On the occasion of Nevruz the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulating Kurdish people on their day,  expressed hope that Nevruz will mark the start of peace and solidarity. He also called Kurds to vote in the upcoming general elections promising to build a stronger Turkey together with them stressing that 400 seats are needed in the Parliament to change the Constitution. However, Erdogan also promised he will not form a "one-man government."

Hours before Erdogan’s speech, the PKK jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan sent a message to the Kurdish people calling PKK to establish a congress for finally putting an end to the armed conflict with Turkey. "This struggle of our 40-year-old movement, which has been filled with pain, has not gone to waste but at the same time has become unsustainable," – as Hurriyet reports Ocalan said in his statement. Ocalan also called to start implementing the 10-points of the declaration agreed by both sides. The declaration was agreed on February 28, 2015 but only the headings of the declaration were published, which some call "headings for real democracy and peace." As araratnews.eu writes the headings are the following:

- Democratic politics, its definition and content;

- democratic resolution and the recognition of the national and local dimensions of resolution;

- legal and democratic guarantees of free citizenship;

- headings regarding the relationship of democratic politics to state and society and the institutionalization of this;

- the socio-economic dimensions of the resolution process;

- treating the relationship between democracy and security in the process in a way that will protect public order and freedoms;

- legal solutions and guarantees for problems of women, culture and ecology;

- development of a pluralistic understanding of the concept of identity, its definition and recognition;

- the recognition of a democratic republic, common homeland and people with democratic criteria, within a pluralist democratic system with legal and constitutional guarantees;

- a new constitution for the purpose of internalizing all this democratic transformation.

So what do all these mean? Will Erdogan really commit itself to ending the armed conflict with Kurds and come to an agreement with them? Or is this just a game Erdogan is playing before the elections to gain the support of the Kurds?

To understand all these, it is important to remember the development of the Kurdish peace process. In 2012 the Turkish government declared that it has started negotiations with the jailed PKK leader Ocalan, to finally give a solution to the armed conflict between Kurds and Turks. This statement was really quite surprising, as before that no statement like that was made. This meant that the role of the Kurds has raised so much, that the Turkish government was seeing it as a direct threat.

Erdogan's statement was followed by another interesting statement, this time from the PKK leader Ocalan, who, on March 21, 2013, the day when Kurds celebrate Nevruz, called the Kurds to put their arms down and start a peace process with the Turkish government.

This showed that during the negotiations, Erdogan was speaking about, the sides have come to an agreement and around it the peace process will be built. Though since 2013 no large scale clashes have taken place, small ones still continue, the last one being on the day of the 16th anniversary of Ocalan's imprisonment. During these years the mutual accusations continue: the Turkish government criticizes PKK for not fully retreating its militants, while PKK claims that there is not enough legal basis for their peace process.

Is this what the PKK hopes to get from the Constitutional changes, also reiterated in the joint declaration mentioned above? Is it exactly the thing by which Erdogan tries to get the votes of the Kurds? In this context we should also remember Erdogan's recent statement, when he said that there is no Kurdish problem. "Like every section of society in Turkey, our Kurdish brothers also have problems," – as Hurriyet reports, Erdogan declared. Here another question rises. If there is no Kurdish problem, why then there is a peace process. These are two contradicting things, which gives a room to think that all these are political maneuvers intended just to get as much votes as possible during the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Of course, one should also not exclude the role of the world developments in the formation of such rhetoric and announcements by the Turkish side. Particularly, the threat coming from the Islamic State makes Turkey be very cautious in not letting Kurds to take advantage of the situation and fulfill their long perished dream – the establishment of Kurdistan.

Thus, it seems, really, the history is repeating. Sides declare that they commit themselves to fully end the conflict, but at least now, there is no ground to consider it something possible…