Alexei Balashov exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
Soon it will be six months since the last terrorist attack on Turkish territory connected with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Since the beginning of the year, when the talks between Turkish authorities and the PKK stepped into a final stage, there has been no news on terrorism or militant intensification of Kurdish terrorists.
On March 21st the national leader of the Kurds and the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, who is imprisoned on the island of Imrali in the Marmara Sea, urged the PKK’s militants “to put a full stop on the Turkish-Kurdish conflict” and to stop bloodshed and leave Turkey. After this, the Ankara authorities let “militant children” (immature Kurds who are often involved into sabotage) stay in the country and also amnestied accessories to terrorism who didn’t directly take part in military and terrorist acts. In their turn, militant units of the PKK began withdrawing from Hakkari and some other south-eastern provinces, crossing the Iraqi border and heading to Iraqi Kurdistan.
However, terrorist attacks didn’t stop with the withdrawal of the PKK in Turkey. Moreover, bombs exploded in Ankara, near the US embassy, and in May a double terrorist attack in Reyhanli in the south-east of the country took the lives of 40 people. The Turkish authorities accused of the sabotage of the “dictator” Bashar Assad and “the criminal” Syrian regime.
The vice premier, Bulent Arinc, said that the terrorist attack in the capital was organized by Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front. The militant group, which initially was called Devrimci Sol, was founded in 1978 (the PKK was founded the same year). It has left-wing views and states their goal as consolidation of the world proletariat for the world revolution.
There is one more interesting coincidence: the PKK was also founded as a left-wing Socialist Marxist-Leninist party with an ethnic color. Only later, when the whole party power was concentrated in Ocalan’s hands, did the PKK become a true People’s Liberation Front of Kurds from foreign enslavers.
In the 35 years of the PKK’s existence five cease-fire regimes have been declared between the Turkish authorities and the PKK (with different extents of success). Three times Ankara ruined the talks and violated the cease-fire (the freezing of the negotiations after the death of President Turgut Ozala; the attempt on Ocalan’s life; his arrest). It is unknown for how long the current, the longest cease-fire will last.
Returning to Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, we should note that terrorist attacks in Turkey have never stopped. Even during the cease-fire in 1999-2004 bombs were set off and policemen were shot in Turkey. In November 2003 two major terrorist attacks were committed in Istanbul. Then, the majority of terrorist attacks in the world were associated with al-Qaeda and its branches in various countries. However, there were smaller incidents, behind which various left-wing terrorist groups stood.
Obviously, the Turkish Republic doesn’t live in peace, despite 33 years without war. Probably the reason is the foreign political situation and restless neighbors (Iraq since 2003, Syria since 2011, and even Greece in 1974) or the lack of a settlement of the ethnic (first of all Kurdish) issue or the activities of left-wing parties and the popularity of socialist ideas; nevertheless, there is no internal peace in the country.
Today the agenda includes such acute questions as improvement of labour conditions and workers’ rights, as well as achieving peace in the region (this is necessary for Turkey’s peaceful development, first of all). While the Turkish elites prefer sacrificing the first point in favor of quick economic growth, in the second direction Ankara is moving in strange and ambiguous ways. For instance, Turkey was one of the first countries which supported the Syrian opposition and began putting political and economic pressure on Bashar Assad’s regime. Time will tell whether this position is beneficial.
We want to believe that a way to settle the Turkish-Kurdish conflict has been found. They should maintain it, even though it is hard and takes a lot of time. Both sides need patience.
