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Turkish president gives unconditional
support to solving Kurdish problem
28.8.2010 |
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August
28, 2010
ANKARA,— Turkish
President Abdullah Gül met with a dialogue group
concentrating on a solution to the long-standing
Kurdish problem, and said he supports activities in
order to assure peace for the citizens of the
country.
Tarık Çelenk, general coordinator of Ekopolitik, a
Web-based publication produced by the ADAM Social
Sciences Research Center, told Today’s Zaman that in
a meeting which lasted about three hours with the
president everybody expressed their views and had
one mutual point of agreement.
“In today’s world, Turkey is a country which has the
potential to be an anchor of stability in its region
and to contribute to a more peaceful world. However,
it first needs to solve its domestic problems in
order to fulfill this task, otherwise it will not
have any credibility,” Çelenk said, evaluating their
visit with the president in Istanbul on Thursday.
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Turkish President Abdullah Gül |
However, he pointed out
that the participants in the meeting have realized
that processes like the upcoming Sept. 12
referendum, the elections in 2011 and the debates on
making a brand new constitution do not present an
environment in which decisions can be made quickly
and applied easily.
“Still, there needs to be continuous efforts to
solve the problem. And we asked the president’s
support for it,” Çelenk said, adding that President
Gül is behind attempts to address the Kurdish issue.
The dialogue group consisted of experts from the
whole range of the political spectrum. Çelenk
stressed that it has not been easy for them to
gather such a diverse group of people to talk.
“Our group meetings were emotionally charged because
of the intensity of the issues. Now we had a meeting
with the president,” he said.
Çelenk explained that President Gül carefully
listened to each of the 18 participants at the
meeting and stressed that he read the report
prepared by psychoanalyst Ayla Yazıcı, who is an
advisor with Ekopolitik.
In her study, she concentrated on the situation in
the mostly Kurdish-populated province of Hakkari
[Turkey Kurdistan] and how it has become more like
an open prison.
“She pointed out that for the youth the classic
mother and father figures are dead because of forced
migration, leaving the city to join the [Kurdistan
Workers’ Party] PKK, etc. For the youth, the only
figure they can look to are the security forces with
whom they engage in a masochistic relationship.” She
stressed in her study that this unhealthy type of
relationship should be broken. “In Hakkari,
everybody feels like they are in an open prison and
they act accordingly,” Çelenk elaborated regarding
Yazıcı’s work.
The group also includes Seydi Fırat, who was a
former member of the PKK. Çelenk said Fırat was not
willing to join the meeting because he felt like
Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk would be better
representatives as heads of the Democratic Society
Congress (DTK) of the Kurds. “But we had the Kurdish
writers Altan Tan,ekurd.net Ümit Fırat and Halit
Yalçın present Kurdish literature to the president.
And we had Kurdish businessman Bedrettin Gündeş
speak about the fact that there are about 5,000
people [PKK members] in the mountains that should be
taken into consideration when talking about a
solution,” Çelenk said.
Çelenk also pointed out that Professor Vamık Volkan,
a political psychologist, said the president’s role
as a person above politics is important for the
society in order to solve the Kurdish issue.
“Volkan said at the meeting that the basis of ethnic
violence in the state is humiliation and insult, and
that Kurds do not feel like equal citizens,” Çelenk
said.
Approximately 40,000 people have died since the
1980s due to the conflict between the PKK and
government forces. In addition, the problems of the
country’s Kurdish citizens have not been adequately
addressed.
The dialogue group includes intellectuals like Murat
Belge, Avni Özgürel, Deniz Ülke Arıboğan, Aşyegül
Elif Aslantepe and Murat Sofuoğlu.
Çelenk said they stress a pluralistic approach since
their group includes “liberal Kurds, Kurdish
nationalists, Kurdish leftists, liberal Turks,
Turkish nationalists and Turkish leftists.” Çelenk
calls them “gatekeepers” who can influence their
followers.
“Everybody has different political opinions. But in
order to build trust, we try to be unbiased. We
don’t support any political view. That is how we can
be successful,” he said.
He added that they are planning field trips and
studies which would include those “gate keepers.”
Although one of its biggest topics is the Kurdish
issue, Ekopolitik also aims to develop new policy
options for policy makers, improve public
understanding of international and domestic politics
and stresses the importance of plurality, consensus
and confidence building as well as harmony in
society.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency, todayszaman com
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