Turkey at crossroads as separatist violence rises

Nicolas Birch 9/14/06

The death toll in a suspected Kurdish separatist bomb attack in southeastern Turkey rose to 10 on September 13, the culmination of a month of bloody violence that has pushed tensions in Turkey to the boiling point.

Seven children were among those who died when an explosion ripped through a bus stop in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir on the night of September 12. The blast occurred hours after Turkey's largest civilian Kurdish grouping made an unprecedented call for the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, to lay down its weapons immediately.

"This was a provocation aimed at taking us back to the darkest days," said Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir, whose Democratic Society Party is seen by many Turks as the PKK's political wing.

Baydemir has good reason for concern. Two hundred and fifty soldiers have died – 27 in the last month alone – since the PKK broke its unilateral ceasefire two years ago. Every death hardens the attitudes of the Turkish public.

In response, the government has replaced last year's groundbreaking talk of a democratic solution to the Kurdish problem with ever more frequent calls for military action against PKK units in northern Iraq.

The blast preceded the September 13 arrival of US Special Envoy General Joseph W. Ralston (Ret), who is visiting Ankara to discuss Turkey's fight against the PKK with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Chief of Staff General Yasar Buyukanit and senior security and foreign ministry officials.

Turkey's traditionally tight-knit society shows growing signs of division in response to the PKK's renewed activity. Four migrant seasonal workers narrowly escaped a lynching in western Turkey last week after locals heard them speaking Kurdish and assumed they were PKK members. They were the latest victims of deepening paranoia.

The violence has also triggered unprecedented open criticism of the Turkish state's handling of its 25-year war on the PKK by relatives of the dead.

"I will not say 'long live this country, '"said Neriman Okay, the mother of an army lieutenant killed in action on September 1, as she stood over her son's coffin, news outlets reported. "I didn't bring my son up to be a soldier, and I do not accept his death. He died for nothing."

In many places, what Okay called her "rebellion" would barely raise an eyebrow. In Turkey, it has been front page news for over a week.

"Neriman Okay has given a voice to all mothers whose sons have yet to do their military service, even those whose sons are still small children," wrote Meral Tamer in the centrist daily Milliyet.

Much of the media coverage has tended to see Okay's words as a protest against the government. That tendency has grown since Prime Minister Erdogan responded to criticisms of soldiers' deaths by announcing that "military service is not a place where you just take it easy."

In a country with an 800,000-strong conscript army, some observers think the comment could spell the beginning of the end for Prime Minister Erdogan's government. Yet, while Neriman Okay did target the premier, her criticisms went much further.

"Sending boys who have never shot a gun to fight terrorists who've been in the mountains for 20 years is pure stupidity," she told one newspaper after the funeral, describing her son's inadequate training. "This should be a job for professionals."

Turkey's new Chief of Staff General Yasar Buyukanit responded by saying he respected "anything the mothers of martyrs have to say." But analysts point out that his very first announcement on taking up his post last month was to insist that there would be no change to the system of military service.

Authorities have traditionally treated critics of military policies swiftly and harshly. A textbook read by all Turkish students suggests that a man who has not done his military service "cannot be useful to himself, his family, or his homeland." It's a point of view backed by Turkish law, as novelist Perihan Magden discovered this July. Her article defending conscientious objection earned charges of "turning Turks against the military." She faced three years in jail, but was acquitted.

Bringing Neriman Okay, a martyr's mother, before a Turkish court would clearly be impossible. But a campaign in one of Turkey's widest-read dailies in recent days suggests that some are determined to neutralize the effect of her protest.

"Beware of the trap" screamed the headlines in nationalist Hurriyet on September 11, over a photo of the weeping Neriman Okay. The paper went on to report on how the PKK had offered her its condolences as part of a plan "to break the moral link connecting the army to the Turkish people." Two days later, the paper followed up with an interview with General Buyukanit, who thanked the journalist responsible for the original story for "laying out this most insidious of plans for the Turkish people to see."

"For the first time, almost, the government and the army are scared," commented Eyup Can, editor of the business daily Referans. "You can't wage a war if you've lost the support of ordinary people."

Editor's Note: Nicolas Birch specializes in Turkey, Iran and the Middle East.

Posted September 14, 2006 © Eurasianet