The Reasons behind the Attacks

While evaluating the recent terrorist attacks, it can be stated that they have primarily targeted to bereave the initiative of fight against terrorism and composure to determine the policies accordingly from the hands of the state.  Relying on its long experience, Turkey has prioritized the understanding of the solution within a holistic approach in the struggle against terrorism.  This holistic approach has composed of socio-economic policies combined with the improvements in the areas of democracy and freedom. On the other hand, it is complemented with the coordinated conduct of the fight against the terrorists. Approached from this framework, the loses of PKK can be sorted as such:

1.       In spite of its ambitions, it has lost the political sphere and the elections.

2.       It has lost the international support to a great extent.

3.       The Europe-originated financial supports have substantially decreased.

4.       It has lost some of the areas of abuse as a result of the democratization process of Turkey.

5.       It has considerably failed to succeed in the plans of suicide attacks towards the cities while a great number of its militant has been arrested.

6.       The cross-border operations conducted in 2007-2008 has shocked and demoralized the organization to a great extent.

7.       In addition to all these, it is observed that the terrorist organization has been experiencing significant difficulties in recruiting militant from within as well as outside the country.

This list can be extended, however, even only these headlines are enough to prove that PKK is in a desperate situation and its oxygen has decreased and its living space has become narrow.  This also proves that the self-invented so called raison d’etre of the organization has begun to erode quickly.

Shaken by the attacks, Turkey has found little time to listen to such analysis within an emotional environment. Moreover, people that benefit from hatred overly utilized Diyarbakir attack following the Aktütün  to excite the flame of hate and keep the society in the emotional context.

Nevertheless, the policy and strategies of the fight against terrorism can not be evaluated and produced according to a single attack and within and emotional sense, just like the fact that the data of the fight against terrorism cannot be calculated with only a single attack. It is a fact that the terrorist organizations plan to conduct much more cruel and violent attacks in the times when they are jammed and in a trouble.  The most typical example here is the terrorist attack of IRA conducted in an open square in 1998 in Omak city of Northern Ireland leaving 28 casualties behind. While being one of the bloodiest actions in its 30-year history, this attack showed that the terrorist organization was at the edge of its end.  Indeed, the IRA terrorist organization has been eliminated in 2000s.

After the latest terror attacks, the pessimistic environment in Turkey has caused the perception that the PKK has taken the initiative in its hands and gained enormous strength. Thus, to what extent  we are able to evaluate the issue distant from what PKK plans and expects from us indicates our level of our understanding and decoding their plans.

What is PKK Trying to Do?

We have briefly mentioned the reasons underlying the existentialist attack of PKK within the hopeless situation. However, the ultimate target, for which these attacks have served, is based on the co-application of the two separate strategies: the tension-strategy based on the Turkish-Kurdish conflict and the strategy to curb the Turkey’s democratization marches.

The terrorist organization, which has succeeded in making Turkey to discuss the Aktütün attack for one week and which martyred 6 police officers in Diyarbakır at a time of loosing environment after the former attack, forces the society to exceed the rage level with the help of the propaganda  of its supporters. This furious process has been tried to be transformed into a massive movement especially with the effects of DTP. As a matter of fact, some events show that the risk of street conflicts emerge in Turkey though being considerably few for the moment.  The significant portion of the slogans shouted by the excited mass is based on the statements of DTP, which was publicized in a way to legitimate the attacks. Therefore, another reason augmenting the anger of the people against the terror attacks is the statements of DTP which legitimize the violence.

The second basic strategy of the organization targets the democratization process in Turkey. In fact, this is neither a surprise nor a novel development. While getting important achievements in the field of democracy thanks to the EU process, Turkey has always faced the bombing actions of the PKK as the biggest obstacle. The organization experienced an important period of quietness between 1999-2003; however, it gained a new momentum in its terrorist activities after 2003 when the democratic achievements of Turkey began to increase substantially. The each and every arrangement, which liberalizes Turkey and recognizes significant rights and freedoms to her citizens, has meant another wave of terrorism for the organization. The parallelism between these actions and democratization has fueled a new debate in Turkey. What if democratization increases terrorism?

In the first place, the observation that the democratization process increases terrorism can be verified with reference to numerical data. However, there are two misguiding analysis here. The first is that the long-term recruitment of new militants into the organization has been prevented via the democratization process. If one thinks that the deep-rooted and enduring solution to terrorism is to prevent the emergence of new terrorists, it will be realized that this particular achievement has triggered the increase in the terrorist activities of the organization. In that regard, the most important way to succeed in the fight against terrorism is to take the materials of abuse utilized in the propaganda activities from the hands of the terrorist organization through the process of democratization. This is the only way to overcome the vicious circle that has been recently repeated by both the civilians and the military in such a sentence: “A great number of terrorists have been paralyzed; however, the recruitment of new terrorists could not be prevented”. Therefore, the numerical increase in the terrorist activities does not mean that democracy is incapable of solving the problem of terrorism. To the contrary, it should be read in a way that the worrying terrorists try to curb the democratic achievements of the country with all the instruments of fear they have. The terrorists are well aware of the fact that their raison d’etre will erode and they would face the crucial problem of recruitment of new terrorists in a Turkey with strongly established democracy.

When evaluated more deeply, it can be stated that PKK caused a short period of confusion. This is because Turkey discussed the reestablishment of the OHAL, criticized the foreign allies and witnessed with over-angered masses which attempted for lynching which can be utilized by the terrorist organization as a propaganda material.

Will Turkey Manage the Process Properly?

The new road map of Turkey in the fight against terrorism seems to be shaped by the incorporation of the existing achievements with a new vision. The discussions in the parliament, the statements of the concerned ministries and the declaration of the high council on the fight against terrorism all indicate that Turkey will perform a holistic approach in the fight against both the terrorists and the terrorism.

Turkey will create a process in which the enhancement of the freedoms and catching up the terrorist; emphasizing the diplomacy and launching cross-border operation; socio-cultural and economic precautions and the management of social tension will be implemented not in a hierarchical, but in a holistic manner in the fight against terrorism. All these dimensions will be required to be realized simultaneously. Indeed, while making diplomatic moves and marching with concrete steps for the calming down the social tension, the permit for the cross-border operations is being enacted. Furthermore, it is expected that various political openings such as the television publishing in Kurdish language will be implemented within this period.

Turkey has already comprehended that the terrorist organization aims to lock the society into a vicious circle. A vicious circle, that causes conceptual confusion among the sides in Turkey, dismantles the policies on combat with terrorism, which are supposed to implemented as a whole to be successful.

Turkey will succeed in the fight against terrorism to the extent that she thinks the two processes in an interconnected manner: to catch, to arrest and to sentence the terrorist; and to enhance the area of rights and freedoms which are usually utilized by the terrorist organization as a matter of propaganda for the recruitment of new members.

Thinking together all these, it can rightly be said that Turkey has made a long distance in the fight against terrorism while the terrorist organization is marching towards its end. If managed successfully, it can be stated that all these actions are the last steps towards the elimination of the terrorist organization, as in the case of IRA. Within this process, the main responsibility on the part of the people is to break the plans of the terrorist organization by approaching the events with common sense.