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A visit by three Kurdish lawmakers to the island of İmralı on Saturday to meet with the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, has signaled strengthened hopes for ending the decades-long terrorism problem in the country, yet experts are not sure if the talks will yield positive fruits in the short run.
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Saturday's visit came as part of ongoing "peace talks" between state authorities and the PKK that the state believes may lead to a timetable for the withdrawal of PKK terrorists from Turkey and their eventual disarmament.
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Deputies of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Pervin Buldan, Altan Tan and Sırrı Süreyya Önder set off by boat early on Saturday from İstanbul's Ataköy Marina for İmralı Island, where Öcalan is jailed. The deputies declined to make any statement to reporters before departure.
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The meeting lasted for five hours. Öcalan reportedly briefed the BDP deputies about his new “roadmap” for the settlement of Kurdish and PKK matters. He also told the delegation that the PKK should declare a ceasefire against Turkish security forces. News reports suggested on Sunday that the ceasefire may come at the beginning of March. The terrorist PKK has declared seven ceasefires in the past.
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“Withdrawal [of the PKK terrorists from Turkey] will begin in connection with steps to be taken in the short term. The organization [PKK] should be prepared for this. An era of politics should begin instead of the use of weapons,” some Turkish dailies quoted Öcalan as telling the BDP deputies.
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The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community, has waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Anatolia since 1984. More than 40,000 people, including civilians and security forces, have been killed in clashes with the terrorist group.
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Öcalan, imprisoned on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara south of İstanbul since his capture in 1999, has significant influence among PKK members and supporters. The Turkish state believes that talks with the terrorist head will achieve their goals of a terrorist withdrawal from Turkey and, in the longer term, disarmament.
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The BDP delegation gave Öcalan a rosary and a fountain pen as gifts.
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Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin spoke on Sunday about the ongoing peace talks, and said both Turks and Kurds, and Turkey as a whole, stand to lose if the talks are not concluded successfully.
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After the meeting, Buldan read a short statement by Öcalan which defined the BDP delegation's visit to Ä°mralı as a “historic step.” The PKK head also called on all parties to be extra cautious and sensitive during the peace talks. “The state and the PKK both have prisoners. The PKK should treat prisoners well, and I hope they can return to their families.”
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In the statement Öcalan refers to both captured soldiers and government employees kidnapped by the PKK in recent years.
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The first meeting between Öcalan and Kurdish politicians as part of the negotiations took place on Jan. 4 when Mardin independent deputy Ahmet Türk and BDP deputy Ayla Akat Ata visited İmralı.
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Kurdish politician and writer Ä°brahim Güçlü said Saturday's BDP delegation lacked the same excitement they had when setting off for Ä°mralı on their return from the island. “I think the members of the delegation were not the right names. It would have been better if other [Kurdish] figures who understand Öcalan better had been sent to the island.
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Their lack of excitement on their return [from Ä°mralı] dropped hints that the PKK -- or better to say Kandil [the mountains where senior PKK commanders reside] -- is not ready for a settlement to the terrorism issue,” he stated in remarks to Today's Zaman.
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According to Güçlü, what was expected from the meeting between Kurdish lawmakers and Öcalan was a clear call for PKK terrorists to withdraw from Turkey. “Looking at the statement delivered by the delegation on Saturday, I see that such a call will not come, at least in the short run. If the PKK were planning to withdraw, the delegation would have given clues as to the plan. However, the statement suggested that Kandil is not willing to lay down its arms. Weapons are the last thing the PKK will give up.”
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Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan called a press conference before leaving for the Arab Emirates on Saturday. He reiterated his earlier message that the PKK must leave Turkey. “We have repeatedly said weapons should be given up and members of this terrorist organization withdraw from the country,” ErdoÄŸan said, adding, “As for the withdrawal, we have said we will take measures to avoid the kind of unfortunate developments that occurred in the past.”
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The PKK says it keeps about half of its 7,000 terrorists in Turkey and half in northern Iraq, where it maintains its primary camps in remote, nearly impassable mountains. The Turkish government estimates the number of terrorists to be lower.
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Terrorism expert Emre Uslu, who is also a columnist and writer, said that although the PKK leader gave two very significant messages during his meeting with Kurdish lawmakers, it is the terrorist group which will decide whether the facts in the messages come true. “First of all, Öcalan said the visit was a historic step, a statement he has made on several occasions in the past and one that is insufficient. The PKK must also agree that these steps [toward solving the problem of terrorism] are historic,” Uslu stated.
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Öcalan's second significant message, according to Uslu, was about the prisoners who are at the hands of the PKK. Emre believes that Öcalan hinted at the possible release of those prisoners in order to appeal to Turks following violent protests that met a group of BDP members last week in Samsun, a province of the Black Sea region with a strong presence of Turkish nationalists.
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“It is evident that Öcalan followed the protests closely through the press and that he thinks Turkish people need to be ‘softened' for greater support for the peace talks. Öcalan thinks that their support may be secured if the prisoners held by the PKK are released,” Uslu noted.
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Uslu also said the BDP may call on the PKK to declare a ceasefire soon, but that it is not clear if the PKK will agree. “PKK terrorists must be called to withdraw from Turkey,” he noted, but added that he does not think that such a move will come in the short term.
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Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal KılıçdaroÄŸlu said he had no up-to-date knowledge on the BDP delegation's visit to Ä°mralı. “I have no knowledge of the issue because I am currently in Antalya. I haven't been briefed yet,” he told reporters on Saturday. CHP officials often complain that the government does not provide other political parties or the public full details of talks with the PKK leader.
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According to BDP Co-chairman Selahattin DemirtaÅŸ, the delegation's visit to Ä°mralı launches a new “phase” in the talks. He also said his party will release a detailed statement about the visit on Monday. “We know more or less what is included in Öcalan's agenda. What we do not know is what is included in the government's agenda,” DemirtaÅŸ noted.
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Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir also believes that the meeting between the BDP delegation and Öcalan will contribute to the peace talks. “Whoever is supposed to contribute [to the talks] should go to Ä°mralı. There are no losers in peace. Yet war means destruction, tears and pain,” he stated.
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Turkish authorities have so far held three rounds of talks with the PKK. The most recent effort was in Oslo when Hakan Fidan, the undersecretary of the National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T), headed an MÄ°T delegation in 2010.
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The talks were ineffective and were interrupted in July 2011 when the PKK staged a fatal attack in Silvan, Diyarbakır. Talks were re-launched a couple of months ago -- although this was revealed to the public only recently -- when the government determined that the jailed PKK leader still has power over the organization's supporters, as a call from him made to Kurdish prisoners who were on a collective hunger strike was enough to end the protest. However, some experts have expressed doubt that PKK commanders fighting in the mountains will obey Öcalan when it comes to laying down their weapons.
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The Grand Unity Party (BBP) is, however, strongly opposed to talks with the PKK. The party's chairman, Mustafa Destici, said the talks should be abandoned and instead, military methods should be used to fight terror. "We do not think that the [peace] process will be to the benefit of Turkey," he added.
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Armenian Pianist Mariam Kharatyan playing piano at Kampen Church of Gamle Oslo.
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