After purely symbolic gestures, a law has just been passed in Turkey to end the war between the state and the PKK guerrillas. This peace framework is a strategy of the Kurdish left, but it is only the beginning of a process that could backfire. ---- This August, the "Law to Strengthen National Solidarity and Social Cohesion" was passed and ratified in Turkey. This law aims to end the conflict between the Kurdish revolutionary party PKK and the Turkish state. It comes more than a year after Abdullah Öcalan, the political leader of the Kurdish movement, called for peace from his cell on the prison island of Imrali, followed by the disarmament and symbolic dissolution of the PKK.
This law essentially provides a framework for ending the war. This includes, among other things, the situation of Kurdish political prisoners accused of "terrorism" and the return of fighters to civilian life, all under the supervision of an observation and coordination committee. Those convicted may have their cases reviewed and their sentences "postponed" and then overturned if no new offense is committed during this postponement period. This amounts to a kind of highly conditional and fragile general amnesty that would affect nearly 80,000 people. While most decisions will be made by the judiciary, the legal framework and the committee allow for executive involvement. Above all, there is no guarantee that the anti-terrorism laws, which are particularly broad in Turkey, will not be applied again against the Kurdish opposition.
Finally, the law makes no provision for the issues that caused the conflict: the erasure of a people, their language, their culture, and the dispossession of their land by an authoritarian and centralizing state. The DEM party, the institutional party of the Kurdish left, announced that this law was only a first step. The objective is to end counter-terrorism as the mode of governance in Kurdistan. This stifles political activity, but above all, this state of perpetual war in Turkey reinforces the authoritarianism of the state. Peace is therefore only a first step towards the democratization of Turkey, the ultimate goal of which would be a constitutional change capable of providing a lasting solution to the problems of the Kurds in Turkey.
The dangers of an unjust peace
This law was passed unanimously by the right wing. President Erdoğan's AKP has hailed it as a decisive step toward a "terrorism-free" Turkey, while the ultranationalist MHP sees it as a necessity to end what they call the "home front" within the broader context of the Middle Eastern conflict. For many actors, including the Turkish far left, this peace process is a way for Erdoğan to prepare for the upcoming presidential elections by defusing the possibility of an alliance between Kemalist and Kurdish opposition forces, and by presenting himself to the public as the one who has resolved the Kurdish question.
This law is a first concrete step by the Turkish state, but the road to peace is far from guaranteed. As a revolutionary, it is difficult to observe this reform process with any certainty that Kurdish democratic and cultural aspirations will be possible within a state that relentlessly oppresses its opposition. The aspirations for peace are legitimate, but only time will tell if it will have had the hoped-for transformative impact in Turkey and, beyond, in the Middle East.
Corentin (UCL Kreiz-Breizh)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Kurdistan-turc-Le-pari-risque-de-la-paix
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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