IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

The PKK might take up arms again

In the course of the ongoing dialogue between PKK and the Turkish state started by a letter of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in the spring of 2013, the PKK guerilla have withdrawn across the Turkish border into the Qandil mountains of Iraq.
In what have the Kurds have gained so far, it can be said that the visibility of the Kurdish language in writing has augmented manifold in Kurdish cities. Other than that, there can hardly be mention of progress. Yes, the large waves of arrests of the year before have stopped - but only a less-than-symbolic two dozens of political prisoners have been freed (of a total number of 9,000 Kurdish political prisoners). The release of all political prisoners was the first demand on the side of the PKK, heading a long list of them.

Instead of truely entering into a dialogue of give-and-take, the Turkish state is using the calm to intensify its military presence in Turkish Kurdistan. Of what "peace process" can be spoken in this case?
In the area, military stations are placed near strategic points. The intention of the state seems to be to double or triple the number of military stations near these location. All over Kurdistan one or two new military stations have recently been built near the old ones, or are being built right now.
At the protest demonstration against the building of a second military post in the village of Lice near Diyarbakır on the 28th of June of this year the police opened fire on the crowd causing one person to die, 18-year-old Medeni Yıldırım.
The building of one military station is said to cost 14 Million Lira, or around 600,000 Euro. At a press conference, the question of why so much money is put into the army instead of investing it in social programs was officially posed to a representant of the state. In a shameless feat of cynicism, the answer that came was that the state is arming itself in the East in case of an attack of Iran.

At the same time the Turkish state is proceeding against the will of the people with its megalomaniac project of dam constructions all over Kurdistan.
Why are the legal Kurdish political party BDP so quiet on the question of the dams being built all across Kurdistan? As the biggest organized opposition party of Turkish Kurdistan, their power to activate people and start movements is unsurpassed. In the Black Sea region, where such a pre-existing movement is unheard of, people organised massively against the building of hydroelectric stations and one nuclear power station.

No matter what a political hotbed Kurdistan is at any point in time, Kurds are actually mostly waiters-and-seers, startled into action by orders of their leader, Abdullah Öcalan. Just as there came no call-out for Istanbul's Gezi Park events, -the absence of which prompted the great majority of Kurds into a quiescent position-, Öcalan seems to have never made a clear statement against the dams. Especially in the light of the fact that the dams at the Iraqi border are aimed at impeaching the movement of the guerrillas this seems a great paradox. About why the imprisoned leader has not called out for greater action there can only be speculation.

Whereas in the Kurdish Alevite region of Dersim enormous demonstrations reuniting tens of thousands of people happened with regularity in the most intense phase of opposition of the dams planned for their region, this sort of mass movement has failed to materialize elsewhere. In Dersim, the plan for the main dam which was destined to destroy the central Munzur valley has apparently been cancelled - while others have already been built or are still being built.
Sporadically, isolated incidents of the sabotage of the working machines at the building sites of dams have happened. However, the building sites in the Kurdish region are under heavy surveillance. The dams in much less politicized Turkish regions, just as destructive for nature and villagers, are under much less control.

In the meantime, some recent developments, such as the assignment of Murat Karayılan as the High Commander of the Kurdish Worker's Party's armed wing, are seen as signs that the PKK is going to take up arms again soon.