Mehmet Ali Birand - English

If you were to look at recent developments you couldn’t ignore a very important observation regarding the Justice and Development Party, or AKP. The AKP that promised change by dragging down ossified formal politics and taboos, and that received votes by saying it would change this country into a real democratic one, has today become a part of the formal system.

What made this party interesting was its attitude toward change.

We were to leave old attitudes that were weary and led to no conclusion. The party at first really took steps that made everybody curious and collected applause from a great segment of both the domestic and international society. Prime Minister Erdoğan did not receive this much support for nothing. He was supported for his attitude toward the formal and ossified system. For that he was awarded at international forums. Let’s take a short look at how far we’ve come.

Everything started with the EU
The most unexpected step the AKP took, was its courageous step toward the full membership in the European Union. It took decisions nobody could take up until then. It made reforms. As a matter of fact, as you will remember, it threw away a draft law draft regarding adultery, suiting their own philosophy, because the EU did not like it.

It became widespread that a party that exhibited such an important attitude toward the EU could not be pro-Shariah. The party received great support from local and international secular liberals and democrats.

What happened next?

All those in favor of the system became active. They talked about Turkey’s exceptional position. They said the Copenhagen criteria would split the country.

The social democratic Republican People’s Party, or CHP, which was supposed to be the banner bearer and the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, which was in a position of harboring nationalists, announced the EU their enemy. The military was up in arms. Some scientists and even businessmen showed reaction. The AKP strongly resisted, but finally gave up. If you look at today’s situation you’ll understand what I mean.

In Cyprus first he roared, then receded
The same was the case with Cyprus. Within the frame of the Annan plan, he took courageous steps in Cyprus that no administration had even dared take before. He changed formal statements. He took decisions that horrified those who supported the status quo. He took steps like fill-in-the-blanks for the secretary general of the United Nations that nobody had expected. All those in favor of the system revolted. Those who supported the status quo and formal system put Erdoğan in a witch’s cauldron. We found out later that some generals even thought of over-throwing him in a military coup. Then we noticed Erdoğan change. He forgot about Cyprus. We were back to old days. We surrendered to the system.

No solution to the Kurdish problem
There was belief that Turkey’s most important problem would have been solved in a more healthy way. Especially when Erdoğan stated acceptance of the Kurdish problem and drew attention to old mistakes in his speech in Diyarbakır, he raised hope. He was to change apprehension by stepping out of the system. Erdoğan was to finish what he started no matter what and important steps were to be taken.

Years have since past and at this point in time Erdoğan, who speaks even more abruptly than a military officer, is in a position where he is sending signals to the constitutional court for closing the State Planning Agency, or DTP. Meaning, he again has surrendered to the system.

Apology to Armenians was final straw
The Armenian Apology movement, however, was the final example that showed Erdoğan has now become an inseparable part of the system.

As much as President Gül’s visit to Yerevan was a historical one, Erdoğan’s reaction to this civil society movement is a clear sign of the AKP’s overall attitude not having changed.

So why?

Maybe Erdoğan wanted to change the system, but couldn’t handle it. Was he forced to give in because he couldn’t bend the wrist?

Or has he fallen back to his real personality? Or has he understood that the formal ideology or system was correct, so he changed and surrendered. I believe that Erdoğan still wants to change things, but what holds him back is sometimes his concern for votes, sometimes it’s because he doesn’t want to fight those protecting the system, sometimes he is incapable or unwilling to do so, sometimes because he has not adopted the change, and sometimes his vision is insufficient. What a pity, isn’t it? The country has missed out on an opportunity.

The Justice and Development Party, or AKP, first appeared before us as a party that deeply respected human rights, freedom of thought, civil movements and even, was at the forefront of these issues. And for this it received much applause and support from the intellectual and liberal segment of society. The "Armenian Apology Campaign" has ruined the AKP’s image, which had already been eroding for some time. For that matter, the party contradicts its former attitude from the ground up. One very distinct example for this is the immediate reaction of the Prime Minister, saying this movement is harmful. This sign given by the person leading the administration was enough to activate all those who are deeply attached to formal ideology. The most characteristic example came from the Foreign Ministry.

Spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, Burak Özügergin, made a very decent announcement. He said this was a civil society movement and formal politics were continuing just like before, and underlined that in our hearts the pain of our martyred diplomats has not yet subsided.

This was an extremely civilized and democratic announcement. When, immediately after that, the negative reaction of the Prime Minister came up, everybody focused on Foreign Minister Babacan. The minister did not surprise us, putting aside the announcement of his spokesman, he stated that these types of movements could inflict a heavy blow on ongoing negotiations with the Armenians.

Meaning he did not leave the track of his boss. I think that the AKP has denied itself in this matter and showed that it has changed. The AKP we know would have reacted to this movement like President Gül. We encountered the opposite.

We reap what we sow
That is to say, the AKP is democratic, but on its own hook. Talking about democracy and freedom of speech if it suits its books, while turning its back if it doesn’t. It means that things they say regarding minorities and those with an ethnic origin is just eyewash.

The Armenian Apology Campaign has revealed such bogeyman you wouldn’t believe it. It is enough to just look at discussions. Oh, my god, it is unbelievable. Aren’t you shivering as you read about the words from the Republican People’s Party, or CHP’s Canan Arıtman.

Arıtman has become a symbol. A symbol for how twisted the feelings of the Turkish public are toward the Armenian issue. Her announcements and her continuing logic make you shiver.

On the other hand, I was astonished by President Gül’s reaction. Yet, on first sight he assumed a very civilized attitude. He had an attitude not likely seen in the AKP. Then he suddenly was alarmed. He shifted his ground onto proving his mother’s origin. He explained and filed a lawsuit. Why? For filing a lawsuit means that his mother was confronted with a bad role or accusation. Yet is there any crime if Gül’s mother was of Armenian or any other origin?

If he only had said "my mother’s origin is obvious. Even if she was of Armenian origin I would be proud of it," instead of bringing out a family tree and stating "my family is Muslim and Turkish registered background dates back centuries."

If he only had not felt like stressing "Muslim and Turkish," as if being Armenian was a shame. As a matter of fact, all this confusion is based on the doctrine at school, articles in newspapers and discussions at universities. We were for many years raised with distorted concepts. So now we reap what we sow.

To understand the Armenian issue
Sedat Laçiner from the International Strategic Research Organization, info@usak.org.tr, has written an extremely interesting book. The book "Ermeni Sorunu, Diaspora ve Türk Dış Politikası" has a basic goal, it examines how the Armenian allegations affects the relations between Turkey and the world.

We are only interested in the Armenian issue. On the other side of the coin there is the Armenian diaspora and the diaspora is what really bothers Turkey. This book examines development of the Armenian issue and the effects of the diaspora in view of Turkey’s foreign policy in detail. I recommend it, read it. Even if you know the subject very well, buy and store it, for it has a nice chronological structure.

Our country may be led with democracy, but recent discussions have shown that an individual segment of this society is not democratic and only plays a game of democracy as long as it is in their interest and as long as you share their opinion, and transforms into its real position when confronted with opposite opinions. A society has been revealed that is intolerant and says "what I say is correct." The Apology to Armenians campaign has opened another Pandora’s box and the demons have spread all over.

Developments should be viewed as a warning.

Blood baths are everywhere.

And the reason for such a fight is this sentence.

"É My conscience does not allow me to accept that the ’Great Catastrophe,’ which the Ottoman Armenians were exposed to in 1915, is met with a lack of sensitivity and is denied. I reject this injustice and I, for my part, share the feelings and the pain of my Armenian brothers, and I apologize to them"

This text that was prepared and put out for signature by a small group and was signed by 20,000 people, meaning they shared this opinion.

This has been done for the first time.

For the first time in Turkey 93 years later a civil community has started a movement and went beyond formal ideology. Because those who signed are important names in society the argument grew shortly. The chemistry of a segment of the society became disrupted. They were labeled traitors and Armenian bastards.

The reactions are best explained by the sentence "É what excuse buster É"

Many failed the class democracy
Many institutions claiming respect for democracy-tolerance-freedom of thought received bad grades.

w it has been comprehended how artificial the Justice and Development Party, or AKP’s democracy was. The prime minister took the lead of those who blamed the apologizers.

w It has been revealed that the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, forgot to put on its social democrat shirt regarding its insufficient response to horrible speeches by Arıtman’s, who was accused of fascism.

w Whereas the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, with its obvious attitude and as a party not surprising people much, the biggest disappointment came from retired former but well-known ambassadors of the foreign ministry. They have proved that they worship formal ideology.

w The foreign ministry first exhibited an extremely civilized attitude, but then the ministers showed by wheeling in Babacan that the known formal line will be continued.

w The announcement by the General Staff was unfortunate. By making an announcement regarding this completely civil movement and the unnecessary brisk reaction from the Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK, to a subject at issue among civilians was a sign of withdrawing from politics.

It is quite normal that governmental organizations adopt formal ideology. For the Armenian issue is a political one and the formal ideology is what it is today, but can change tomorrow. Organizations can adjust their attitude accordingly when it changes.

The problem here is different.

The fault line or the regulating point here is will the people in this country, even if they are at variance with the formal ideology or if they make it more difficult for the state to an extent, announce their personal view or hold it back.

It is apparent that in Turkey, on its way to the European Union, it is still not possible to voice a view. Better to say that the society is not at the same level with the one in the EU regarding its listening manners, maturity, civilization and tolerance toward different opinions.

Whatever happens, one may show reaction as one pleases, but this movement has met its target. That is what matters after all.

What have we done to apologize for, buddy
We could summarize the responses of those who favor an apology and those who oppose it:

w Expressions like "Great Catastrophe" and "denial" in the announcement are used by Armenians. The first one is a synonym for genocide. These words imply that the signature bearers accept genocide allegations and apologize for it.

w That is beside the point. If it were true it would openly read genocide. Besides, did we not hide the Armenian issue from our people throughout our history and prevented discussions? Because we do not accept the genocide we used the expression "Immense Disaster." The expression "denial" was used to cover for the deficiency in our history books.

w If the Armenian propaganda language is used, they are weak in ongoing formal negotiations between Turkey and Armenia and on the international public platform there will be the impression that the tendency of the Turkish public has changed that would lead to a loss of negotiations on our side.

w Our declaration is in no way binding the Turkish government. We express our personal views. We vocalize personal attitude. The government puts all aside and continues with negotiations. The public opinion is different all over the world, governments think differently. Despite that, these governments continue with politics as they please.

w As if murder of our people in Anatolia by Armenians first committed in the second half of the 19th century then during the World War I and our War of Independence is not enough, what about our 70 (nine of them diplomats) dead and martyrs in the years 1974 and 1986 who fell victim during the Asala terror. Why should we apologize before they apologize to us?

w We neither ignore the Armenian blood bath nor the Asala terror organization murders. As a matter of course they too should apologize. This is an obligation on their part. We are taking the first step to show good faith, now it is their turn.

Apart from these there are "Passengers in the Middle."

Retired ambassadors, journalists and civilians, who decline both above mentioned views and state they would sign the announcement of the apologizers in case they would add sentences inviting Armenians to apologize and sentences addressing our martyr. Some state that they are against such announcements because it will split our society in two and create conflict with each other.

When we left for Rio, leaving the introverted Argentinean with a serious look behind us, I looked at the map and Brazil looked like a neighbor country. But the pilot said that we were going to fly three hours I examined the map more carefully and saw that the Latin American continent is immense and distances unbelievably far.

Everything in Rio was different from what we saw in Buenos Aires. The Argentineans are serious and introverted people. They are dark skinned but there are no blacks. The Brazilians gave the impression that they ate caviar and drank champagne everyday and were not interested in anything else but amusement, samba and football. Of course one cannot generalize based on observations during a short period of time. Nevertheless, some impressions during the short period may be approximately correct.

Even their way of dancing is different.

The Argentinean tango is filled with emotions, sex, and ambition, and is an introverted dance. Two people sharing their inner feelings. Whereas the Brazilian samba is extroverted and opposite to tango. It is wriggly, and colorful and flamboyant. It excites people with its rhythm and figures. Tango is danced with people but samba is shared among hundreds.

I didn’t cite "caviar and champagne" for no reason. Daily life of people in Rio is full of entertainment and beauty. According to some, there are 7 million, according to others there are 11 million inhabitants. Brazil is a country measuring more than 8.5 million square kilometers with 178 million people living in it.It is a region where the income imbalance reaches its highest ratio and a country where a minority group has a yearly income of $25,000 the middle class earns $5,000 per annum and the poor earn $1 at the most per day. And they all live together. For this reason the biggest concern in Rio is still public order. Burglary, theft, murder and large robberies are a part of everyday life. The largest service sector is made up of security firms. Every house and every shop has special security and is surrounded by an iron fence.

People around the world live with nearly the same reflexes. Wherever you go, just like us, they too have one or more historical leaders... they too get excited by sports. Some become fanatics of football, some of cricket, some of baseball. But very few countries live with music like the Argentineans do. I was always told it was, but I couldn’t believe it could be that much a part of their lives. I went and saw, and was fascinated as well as admiring of them. Morning, night and day is filled with music. I’m not talking about just some kind of music. An Argentinean life is tango... first I thought it was a tourist attraction. But as I walked in the streets of Buenos Aires, went in and out of cafes, diners and shows, I understood that tango is part of an Argentinean’s everyday life.

While walking the streets shadowed by acacia, jacaranda and pine trees, the next more beautiful than the other, or taking a tour on an open air bus under the sparkling sun, all you hear is tango. Tango for the Argentineans has the same value as belly dancing does for us. Just as much as we love to perform or watch belly dancing when we become emotional, Argentineans taste the flavor with tango. It virtually has become a national music. Tango is bordello music I didn’t know before, I learned it here. It seems that tango is a genre of music created by Italian, Peruvian and Uruguayan "foreign workers" who came to Buenos Aires in the 1880s. The only amusement these workers had, who came to the coastal town Buenos Aires to make up for the deficit of manual labor in the country, was the bordello. There would be such a rush that the bordello owners would hire an orchestra for their customers who waited for one or two hours.These orchestras and workers from very different countries created tango music by making it up. Because they could not read or write, they constantly improvised (played as they pleased). The songs were always about daily life. The dance was made up by customers of bordellos who came to be with a woman for five to 10 minutes. When watching professional tango dancers in Argentina one can tell where this dance comes from. It smells extremely like sex, a dance full of figures of two people making love standing up. I’m not talking about the tango that we dance. The one in Europe is very nice but has a boring choreography. You should see the tango shows in Buenos Aires. Then you’ll see how much the aspect of sex can penetrate a dance. As a matter of fact, in the beginning of the 1900s it was bad to do the tango, even a sin. The Catholic Church prohibited the tango, which rose from bordellos and featured a sex-like act standing up. I’ve been to many places and seen monuments and historical places of interest, but would never have thought that a grave could be a center of appeal. This happened to me in Buenos Aires. I resisted but finally found myself standing next to Eva Peron’s grave. There is no equivalent in our country, one that is not much seen in Europe or America either. A small grave but each vault is almost like a monument. Argentina has a society that is extremely sympathetic, happy and in general introverted. What struck me the most was that there are no black people in Argentina. However, manual labor on the continent of America was mainly met by black slaves from Africa. They were not brought to serve Argentina, which was occupied by Spain for 500 years. I asked why and they said, "it was too expensive that’s why they did not prefer it." There are no natural resources. They achieve income through cattle and agricultural export. Despite the fact that they are not a rich nation, their enthusiasm and view of life, their taste and discipline makes the country the most interesting one in South America. Their democracy has often, just like ours, been interrupted. But their military was very cruel. It came but never left. Now they protect their democracy, which they have earned in 25 years, like the apple of their eye. Do you know what Buenos Aires’s most important issue is from our standpoint? It is so very far away. If it were a country easier to be reached I’m sure it would be invaded by Turks. I enjoyed it very much. I would recommend it to everyone who can spare the time. People become more enriched the more they see different countries and different cultures. This is where the Buenos Aires interlude ends. Tomorrow I’ll move on to Rio. Let’s see the difference between the two countries.

I thought Istanbul was the most beautiful city in the world; until I saw Buenos Aires. I was fooling myself. Argentina’s capital city and Istanbul where I was born and raised are incomparable Please don’t be mad at me just because I don’t see Istanbul as "the most beautiful city in the world" and instead prefer Buenos Aires. You’ll think I’m right as we move along. As the bayram holiday was 10 days long, my wife, Cemre, and I went on a Buenos Aires to Rio tour, which we had been curious about for years.

Our first stop was Buenos Aires. Much praised, but I didn’t think I’d be as impressed as I was. I don’t know how to describe it. Imagine this É take a little of Madrid’s exquisite arenas and add some of Paris’s great wide boulevards. This will not be enough, so place some great old buildings from Barcelona, Rome and again Paris into this picture. Mix them all like a cocktail and decorate all the streets and boulevards with marvelous trees. If you think there won’t be enough greenery, then place parks full of big centuries-old trees.

This is what Buenos Aires looks like. Buildings, each one more decent than the last. Clean roads. Colorful streets. Rich shops. A city where each detail has been planned carefully. It has adopted the most beautiful part of the most beautiful cities in Europe and ascribed them to itself. Only it did not stop at that. Music has been placed into all this beauty. Can you think of a city where music bursts from every corner? Tango has here become a part of everyday life.

You hear tango on the street when you go shopping. Every street is full of cafes and restaurants, and tango music is heard on every corner. Wherever you go, either a tango show is put on or tango is danced in the streets. Music becomes a part of your life. Argentina is an enormously big country, 2,766,890 square kilometers, three and a half times bigger than Turkey, of which 2,736,690 square kilometers are mainland, 30,200 square kilometers are water, and its population is only 40 million. Four million people are living in Buenos Aires. It was occupied by Spain for 500 years before it achieved autonomy in 1816. Afterward, it lived through consecutive military coups and for the past 25 years the country has been enriched by democracy.

There is no natural beauty in Buenos Aires. But on the contrary, engraved like a pearl it has become a green city. Whereas Istanbul possesses the world’s most natural beauty: The Bosphorus decorates it like a necklace made of diamonds. On the contrary, Istanbul is a city with buildings badly built, their sprouts fill the hills with ugliness, full of TV antennas and advertisements that do not appeal to one’s eye. It is a city that grew without any plan or program.

No green, no parks, no large boulevards É Istanbul is a concrete jungle full of dirt. You can’t help but be angry.

I compared my beautiful Istanbul with Buenos Aires and became especially angry at the municipalities that contributed to the deformation campaign that started in the 1970s, and became angry at journalists and politicians who did not spend any effort on stopping this course. We were ruled by peasants. We were all tasteless people who were not aware of the fortune at hand. We are still that way. I understood more clearly how we destroyed a dear city when I saw Buenos Aires.

Argentinas agenda not different from ours
You need to fly 17 hours from Istanbul to Argentina’s capital city. We live on one side of the world. Argentineans live on the other side. But we face almost the same problems. Fifty percent discounts in display windows of shops that you see as soon as you enter the streets, comments on crises in newspapers and unemployment anxiety was enough to tell that there is no difference between the agenda of Turkey and Argentina, thousands of kilometers away.

Just like at home, the government announced a 10 percent inflation rate, but international assessment organizations claimed the inflation pushes 25 percent and Argentina needs to tighten its belt. On the contrary, the only excitement the people experience is limited to the competition between the football teams, Boca Junior and Rio Platai, which is even worse than the competition of our Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray teams. Buenos Aires constantly lives with football. However they are advanced in this matterÉ Did you know that Maradona is being raised to a deity position? Maybe you won’t believe it, but there is a church named after Maradona. Those who visit this church, along with the 120,000 fans, pray for Maradona. He is coach of the Argentinean national team, he no longer uses drugs and he lives at the level of a deity (!) We too have exaggerations, but we cannot pass beyond Argentina. One of them is the country’s cheapness. You won’t believe it, but you can buy shoes, clothes and all sorts of things in Buenos Aires for half the price as in Istanbul. It probably is a prestigious status to be a Turk in Argentina, one of the rare countries that do not require a visa from us. You are not treated like an illegal worker, or drug dealer or a Muslim who could be involved in terrorism attacks any time, as you would be treated in Europe. We quite often met Turkish groups on shopping streets. Their biggest concern too was, why is Istanbul not like Buenos Aires?

It passed like a dream. We will not in a long time probably ever have a 10-day vacation again. This one was great. I was able to go on a journey that I was dreaming about for years. With my wife Cemre, we first went to the land of tango, Argentina, and from there to the land of samba, Brazil. Both are so far away from Turkey, so different from the problems choking your everyday life, that I felt like I was walking on Mars.

Whatever happens one cannot detach from home and one’s own life. One can’t help but compare your own place with the one you are presently in. Is Istanbul more beautiful or Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro? Which one would you prefer if you were to live somewhere else? Every place has its own unique beauty and ugliness.This week I’d like to create an opportunity and tell about what I saw and experienced. Like before, when I went to China and upon my return shared with you my amazing observations. I’ll do the same here.

For one week I don’t want to talk about politics or prime minister-opposition fights. We will come back to these matters and become victims thereof anyway. The best thing is to share different worlds for a while.

I wanted to start right away today but the pictures I took are not ready yet.

Sarkozy kept his word to Erdoğan
On top of that the article about Sarkozy was very important. Therefore, starting tomorrow I will walk you around in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.

Sarkozy, from the moment he was elected president of France, has received a lot of reaction from the Turkish public. Especially his approach in the European Union issue offended us very much.

It didn’t stop at that. The tension grew when the French Parliament put a draft regarding punishment for those who deny Armenian genocide allegations on its agenda, even passed it through the assembly and sent it to the senate for approval. This public approach meant that France did not care about Turkey and handles bilateral relations careless.

Exactly within this period Sarkozy said to Erdoğan, "Don’t worry, Turkey is important to us. We will overcome our mutual difficulties. We intend to extend our relations. Besides, within our EU presidency period we will by no means prevent negotiations."

The truth is that no one believed these words would come true.Whereas I see now that Sarkozy is a president who kept his word.

First he announced a trusted parliamentarian Pierre Lelouche his special consultant in matters regarding Turkey. Then concrete steps followed.France behaved extremely impartial during its European Union presidency period. He even promised that two new headings would be created. Explanations made by the secretaries of state during the last summit pleased Ankara. The French government did not support the punishment of Turkey regarding Armenian genocide allegations. In the end, the French government openly opposed an act providing punishment of those who deny genocide allegations.

Sarkozy did not change Turkey’s intent to join the European Union. But he stopped talking about this issue in a loud voice and thus ceased tension within bilateral relations. Because there will be a referendum at the end of this period, negotiations are no longer being prevented before then. The French president with his approach has openly shown that he does not intend to hurt Turkey.

One other important development has occurred among the French public. The number of those who became aware of the carelessness against Turkey increased. Especially historians revolted. The attempted legalization of Armenian genocide allegations has back fired. Historians have laid bare the nonsense of politicians trying to make history in such a way that in the end all supporters of the act have backed off one by one. Today a new approach in Turkish-French relations has started to prevail. Old carelessness no longer exists. Bilateral relations are back to the old days. In short, Sarkozy kept his word to Erdoğan.

In general we all would like to immediately get rid of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. We expect those whose opinion we trust to prescribe a formula. I too receive from time to time questions from my readers: They say, "What should we do? How can we solve this problem?" There is not only one formula to solve this problem. I mixed my own experience with the formula of experts whose views I trust, the military and politicians, and came up with a integrated formula. Let us start with some assessments: 1. The presence of the Kurdish problem brought forth the PKK, for the organization after a while grew because of wrong formulas prescribed by Turkey, and became a monster that dominates the agenda.

2. The PKK poses a security problem and we need to stress the security part in order to fight the PKK. But if we look only at the security part we will not get far.

3. The Kurdish problem on the other hand is a political, social and identity problem. The Kurdish problem will never be solved by Turkey, for there is no end to expectations. It can only be eased. It can only meet an important part of expectations. Steps to be taken in the Kurdish problem will decrease support for the PKK and marginalize them. The PKK will never completely vanish but can only be diminished up to a point where it no longer bothers society.

4. Result: while the PKK and security forces struggle, the civil administration needs to take steps in the political, social, cultural and economic field regarding the Kurdish problem. Up until today we walked on one leg. Only stressing security. We ignored other legs and therefore did not obtain satisfactory results.

No semi-actions, brave serious steps needed
Today’s scenario is very bad. The state’s reflex is still based on security. It seems to suffice that the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, becomes elected to municipalities of Diyarbakır, Tunceli, Hakkari in order to beat the PKK and the Democratic Society Party, or DTP. And only in order to win local elections economic donations are distributed in the name of charity. There is no economic plan at large. The PKK and DTP openly work together because they fear to lose local elections. As society becomes stressed, democracy dissolves, human rights diminish, the Kurdish problem is neglected while the focus is on the struggle against terror. The state unfortunately steps into this trap. There are important steps that need to be taken in order to progress in the Kurdish problem, to relieve people in the region and finally to ensure some distance from the PKK. I could summarize mutual advice given by, generally healthy thinking, Kurdish and Turkish intellectuals as follows:

1. Let them use their language: The Kurdish language should be admitted except in official writings, and be an elective at universities. Restrictions in education should be abolished. Institutions for Kurdish Studies should be allowed. Restrictions on Kurdish names should be abolished. Kurdish names for villages and places that have been translated into Turkish should be given back. Instead of fighting Roj TV they should be allowed unlimited air but within the legal framework. Radio and TV should be released.

2. Work and food provided: You can not prevent an unemployed, hopeless, hungry and shabby young man from going into the mountains and taking up arms. No matter what, we need to increase job possibilities in the region. Not by distributing charity, but by educating and enriching the people.

3. Pave the way for politics: Only politics can solve the Kurdish problem. However, the PKK and the Turkish Republic block politics. The PKK and the state hinder the DTP from acting independently. There is pressure exercised by the state to separate the DTP from the PKK in order for the PKK to remain the sole representative of the Kurds. In this situation the DTP stays disabled. Unfortunately the Turkish Armed Forces restrict civil politicians as well. They hinder civilians from producing brave politics. They look at it only from the security point of view. Those who do not want the problem to be solved, compress the result between the PKK and the office of Chief of Staff and allow the problem to spread.

4. Pardons absolutely need to pass: The word pardon gives most people in Turkey the goose bumps, especially soldiers. But you will see in the end we will have to pass the act of grace. Otherwise we can not convince those in the mountains nor the top leaders of the PKK.

5. Agreement with Barzani and Talabani is a must: Turkey must to make peace with Kurds in northern Iraq. We can not pull Barzani or Talabani on to our side by constantly arguing with them. In case we can not come to some kind of agreement with them, we can not banish the PKK from northern Iraq.

6. Send new bureaucrats to the region: New bureaucrats and security guards are needed in the region, who can expand on and whose attitude of mind is suitable to what we listed above. Otherwise all precautions will remain on paper.

RESULT: The way to go in order to realize all of this is a new constitution. With the attitude of today’s constitution and as long as the approach of those in charge of jurisdiction prevails, Turkey will not get far.

Is it not a pity?