Journalist Çandar suggested gradual amnesty for PKK members
Journalist Çandar suggested gradual amnesty for PKK members
Journalist Cengiz Çandar, known for his work on the Kurdish problem, suggested a gradual amnesty for Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members and leaders to reach a social peace.
Releasing his report on Kurdish case in a conference held by the Foundation for Economic and Social Studies in Turkey (TESEV) in Ýstanbul yesterday, Çandar also recommended seven more steps that need to be taken by the parties involved in the issue.
According to Çandar these recommendations could simultaneously be accepted among sides that are politically, socially and ethnically different:
1. The first step towards a resolution is to create a climate of mutual trust between the sides (the government and PKK). The precondition for such trust would mean that the majority of the defendants charged in the KCK case, particularly the elected mayors, ought to be released and the case must be dropped.
2. The climate of trust between the sides would only be possible once the disarmament takes place. Therefore, the “inaction” status of the PKK must be kept at status quo continually. In order to consolidate this “inaction” status of the PKK, the operations and attacks on the PKK by the Turkish Armed Forces and other security forces must be stopped. Diminishing the possibility of creating proactive settings by stopping the operations and making the “inaction” status long lasting would obstruct the people (who exist in both sides) from engaging in actions in favor of “the continuance of war”. Moreover, the suspension of operations by the state could be achieved only if the military authority would be subordinate to civil authority and only if the civil authority would embrace this approach.
3. Another significant step necessary to show that it is possible for the Kurdish people to engage in politics openly, legally and legitimately, along with dropping the KCK case, is the allowance of the accurate and broadest possible Kurdish representation at the Turkish Grand National Assembly, which would also give reason for people to get off the mountains and disarm. However, in order for such condition where Turkey’s “domestic peace” and “PKK becoming Turkish” to be achieved, the state must lower the threshold percentage of votes to less than the original number of ten percent. Besides being a very important practical solution to free the Kurdish Question from violence, this restructuring is also a democratic necessity; and therefore must be adopted.
4. The listed steps towards a possible solution to the Kurdish problem would be insufficient and inefficient unless accompanied by mandatory legal changes. First of all, a new constitution must be written which should include a new definition of citizenship. Moreover, the next important problem that must be solved is to find a satisfactory solution for the broad Kurdish demand for a right to be educated in their mother tongue.
5. The new constitution and legal reforms should aim to give a new status to Kurds in Turkey. The hope that Kurdish people can gain a new status is also a consensus among the Kurdish people who are not a part of the PKK or even against the PKK and its ideology. In accordance with this, Turkey should remove its reservation on the Council of European Local Governance Charter.
6. The people who were interviewed before the report was put together have all agreed on the fact that Abdullah Öcalan is a very significant political actor who can play the role of “partner to the solution”. As a result, any change that is to be made to the status of Öcalan’s detention conditions, in the long and short run, cannot be held separate from the solution to the Kurdish problem and the disarmament of the people in the mountains. The changes in Öcalan’s situation could range from improving the detention conditions in the short-term to Öcalan’s release in the medium-term. The people who gave out opinions seem to agree upon one type of a short term change in Öcalan’s condition; this is the transition to house arrest.
7. A gradual amnesty implementation is commonly recognized as a possible step towards ruling out the “fighters up in the mountains” both by the government officials and managers of the PKK as well as the Kurds in opposition to the PKK who were interviewed during the course of writing this report. In the meantime, they all seem to agree upon the fact that in order to stop the PKK armed forces and demilitarize the Kandil Mountains, an amnesty application is necessary. Of course, in order to achieve the ultimate "social peace," the "progressive amnesty implementation" must not only be applied to the present PKK members but also to all the other thousands of people who have quit the PKK yet were forced to live abroad and/or people who have been criminally investigated/persecuted due to their actions at protests. In this case, people who have never been affiliated with the PKK but have been sent abroad because of the developments around the Kurdish issue must also benefit from the amnesty rights. All of this could happen through the issuance of a special law.
Çandar meet with high ranking bureaucrats, politicians, current cabinet members, opinion leaders, Öcalan’s lawyers and the PKK’s current leaders in the east and in Europe to prepare the report.
Çandar also emphasized his worries about the Supreme Election Board’s recent decision to strip imprisoned Kurdish deputy Hatip Dicle of his membership of parliament.
He particularly underlined his findings about the role of PKK in peace process, saying; “Firstly, we named the case, ‘Kurdish uprising.’ Then, we stated the basic theory which was that if there is an uprising, there must be an armed force. This definition brought us to accept that the Kurdish problem and the PKK cannot be separated. Consequently, it not possible to imagine a solution to the Kurdish issue by excluding the PKK. Authorities meeting with Öcalan became an acceptable step for society. If you cannot solve the problem using military methods, you need to change the parameters and include other parties to the issue. The part in prison has to be considered as a legal representative of the Kurdish movement and an appropriate part to negotiate.
The report titled “Down the Mountain – How could the PKK be disarmed? The Kurdish Question Freed from Violence” is the fourth and last published report of the Political Reports on the Kurdish Question Series which summarizes previously conducted research on the issue of the Kurdish Question by the TESEV Democratization Program. Previous publications have offered a roadmap towards a solution for the Kurdish Question such as policy proposals from the region for the government and constitutional and legal recommendations. By making the demands from the region public through their previous publications, TESEV’s Democratization Program has opened up a debate in the west and north of Turkey on solving the Kurdish Question. Moreover, this last report explores the necessary conditions that would lead the PKK being disarmed.
Prior to writing the report, Cengiz Çandar interviewed approximately forty people in a period of six months, including state and government officials such as the president of Turkey, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of Justice, PKK executives such as Murat Karayýlan and Zübeyir Aydar, people who have quit PKK, Abdullah Öcalan’s lawyers, representatives of non-governmental organizations and political parties, all people who are closely related to the Kurdish Question in Turkey.
This report contains the most comprehensive research findings concerning the necessary conditions for the disarmament of PKK that have been done to date. Therefore, the conclusions drawn from this report will be a guide in terms of finding possible future solutions. There have always been opposing sides on the opinion about how to solve the Kurdish Question, and consequently, the PKK problem; however, the report makes an emphasis on the existence of intersecting points of view regarding theoretically differing sides on how to proceed with solving the problem, especially after the elections of June 12th 2011.
Releasing his report on Kurdish case in a conference held by the Foundation for Economic and Social Studies in Turkey (TESEV) in Ýstanbul yesterday, Çandar also recommended seven more steps that need to be taken by the parties involved in the issue.
According to Çandar these recommendations could simultaneously be accepted among sides that are politically, socially and ethnically different:
1. The first step towards a resolution is to create a climate of mutual trust between the sides (the government and PKK). The precondition for such trust would mean that the majority of the defendants charged in the KCK case, particularly the elected mayors, ought to be released and the case must be dropped.
2. The climate of trust between the sides would only be possible once the disarmament takes place. Therefore, the “inaction” status of the PKK must be kept at status quo continually. In order to consolidate this “inaction” status of the PKK, the operations and attacks on the PKK by the Turkish Armed Forces and other security forces must be stopped. Diminishing the possibility of creating proactive settings by stopping the operations and making the “inaction” status long lasting would obstruct the people (who exist in both sides) from engaging in actions in favor of “the continuance of war”. Moreover, the suspension of operations by the state could be achieved only if the military authority would be subordinate to civil authority and only if the civil authority would embrace this approach.
3. Another significant step necessary to show that it is possible for the Kurdish people to engage in politics openly, legally and legitimately, along with dropping the KCK case, is the allowance of the accurate and broadest possible Kurdish representation at the Turkish Grand National Assembly, which would also give reason for people to get off the mountains and disarm. However, in order for such condition where Turkey’s “domestic peace” and “PKK becoming Turkish” to be achieved, the state must lower the threshold percentage of votes to less than the original number of ten percent. Besides being a very important practical solution to free the Kurdish Question from violence, this restructuring is also a democratic necessity; and therefore must be adopted.
4. The listed steps towards a possible solution to the Kurdish problem would be insufficient and inefficient unless accompanied by mandatory legal changes. First of all, a new constitution must be written which should include a new definition of citizenship. Moreover, the next important problem that must be solved is to find a satisfactory solution for the broad Kurdish demand for a right to be educated in their mother tongue.
5. The new constitution and legal reforms should aim to give a new status to Kurds in Turkey. The hope that Kurdish people can gain a new status is also a consensus among the Kurdish people who are not a part of the PKK or even against the PKK and its ideology. In accordance with this, Turkey should remove its reservation on the Council of European Local Governance Charter.
6. The people who were interviewed before the report was put together have all agreed on the fact that Abdullah Öcalan is a very significant political actor who can play the role of “partner to the solution”. As a result, any change that is to be made to the status of Öcalan’s detention conditions, in the long and short run, cannot be held separate from the solution to the Kurdish problem and the disarmament of the people in the mountains. The changes in Öcalan’s situation could range from improving the detention conditions in the short-term to Öcalan’s release in the medium-term. The people who gave out opinions seem to agree upon one type of a short term change in Öcalan’s condition; this is the transition to house arrest.
7. A gradual amnesty implementation is commonly recognized as a possible step towards ruling out the “fighters up in the mountains” both by the government officials and managers of the PKK as well as the Kurds in opposition to the PKK who were interviewed during the course of writing this report. In the meantime, they all seem to agree upon the fact that in order to stop the PKK armed forces and demilitarize the Kandil Mountains, an amnesty application is necessary. Of course, in order to achieve the ultimate "social peace," the "progressive amnesty implementation" must not only be applied to the present PKK members but also to all the other thousands of people who have quit the PKK yet were forced to live abroad and/or people who have been criminally investigated/persecuted due to their actions at protests. In this case, people who have never been affiliated with the PKK but have been sent abroad because of the developments around the Kurdish issue must also benefit from the amnesty rights. All of this could happen through the issuance of a special law.
Çandar meet with high ranking bureaucrats, politicians, current cabinet members, opinion leaders, Öcalan’s lawyers and the PKK’s current leaders in the east and in Europe to prepare the report.
Çandar also emphasized his worries about the Supreme Election Board’s recent decision to strip imprisoned Kurdish deputy Hatip Dicle of his membership of parliament.
He particularly underlined his findings about the role of PKK in peace process, saying; “Firstly, we named the case, ‘Kurdish uprising.’ Then, we stated the basic theory which was that if there is an uprising, there must be an armed force. This definition brought us to accept that the Kurdish problem and the PKK cannot be separated. Consequently, it not possible to imagine a solution to the Kurdish issue by excluding the PKK. Authorities meeting with Öcalan became an acceptable step for society. If you cannot solve the problem using military methods, you need to change the parameters and include other parties to the issue. The part in prison has to be considered as a legal representative of the Kurdish movement and an appropriate part to negotiate.
The report titled “Down the Mountain – How could the PKK be disarmed? The Kurdish Question Freed from Violence” is the fourth and last published report of the Political Reports on the Kurdish Question Series which summarizes previously conducted research on the issue of the Kurdish Question by the TESEV Democratization Program. Previous publications have offered a roadmap towards a solution for the Kurdish Question such as policy proposals from the region for the government and constitutional and legal recommendations. By making the demands from the region public through their previous publications, TESEV’s Democratization Program has opened up a debate in the west and north of Turkey on solving the Kurdish Question. Moreover, this last report explores the necessary conditions that would lead the PKK being disarmed.
Prior to writing the report, Cengiz Çandar interviewed approximately forty people in a period of six months, including state and government officials such as the president of Turkey, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of Justice, PKK executives such as Murat Karayýlan and Zübeyir Aydar, people who have quit PKK, Abdullah Öcalan’s lawyers, representatives of non-governmental organizations and political parties, all people who are closely related to the Kurdish Question in Turkey.
This report contains the most comprehensive research findings concerning the necessary conditions for the disarmament of PKK that have been done to date. Therefore, the conclusions drawn from this report will be a guide in terms of finding possible future solutions. There have always been opposing sides on the opinion about how to solve the Kurdish Question, and consequently, the PKK problem; however, the report makes an emphasis on the existence of intersecting points of view regarding theoretically differing sides on how to proceed with solving the problem, especially after the elections of June 12th 2011.
