| Submitted by Tsiatsan on Friday, November 13 2009 |
Kurdish Info 13.11.2009- The Turkish Parliament has since its inception gathered for the first time 10th of November to discuss the Kurdish issue. The proposal by CHP and MHP to postpone the gathering because of it being November 10th (date of Atatürk’s death) was rejected. Interior Minister Beşir Atalay spoke first and once again his speech didn’t consist of the word ‘Kurd’ once. ‘‘The matter cannot be solved by taking palliative measures, it must be solved in a realistic and lasting way’’ said Atalay, but didn’t abandon the ‘terror’ expression. Atalay made a presentation promoting the work they had done regarding the ‘democratic initiative.’ He began his speech by saying, ‘‘we are actualising another historical sitting today.’’ Atalay didn’t used the term ‘Kurdish issue’, and said that they looked upon the issue as being a national matter, above individual parties. He complained that the Opposition had not played its role. ‘‘To comprehend the importance of the initiative we have begun, one must comprehend the nature of the problem’’ he said.
However Atalay himself didn’t go to the root of the problem and once again clung onto the ‘terror’ term. Atalay said, ‘‘Whatever people think is at the root of the problem, we can agree on one thing, that this problem is a searing problem and that for over a quarter of a decade, all our energies have been consumed by it. Everyone has lost out. The matter cannot be solved by taking palliative measures; it must be solved in a realistic and lasting way. And this can only be done by sincerity and determination.’’
Atalay then touched upon the meetings they had conducted regarding what he called the democratic initiative. Atalay sent out messages to nationalist groups and said ‘‘the democratic initiative contains and will not contain any elements that threaten our unitary structure.’’
By saying that the initiative had two tangible objectives, Atalay conveyed their target of annihilation. The first is to bring an end to terror and to raise the level of democracy he said. Atalay left the end of his speech to refer to the peace groups that had come following the call by Kurdish Peoples Leader Abdullah Öcalan.
Atalay distorted the arrival of the peace groups as some citizens returning home. Once again he targeted the grand reception of the peace groups as being a political show. ‘‘No one should try and extract a political victory from this. If a victory is to be extracted from the arrival of those returning from the mountains, then it is the victory of this initiative’’ he said.
MP GÜLTEN KIŞANAK: LET US USE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO ATONE FOR THE LOST YEARS
Amed MP Gülten Kışanak stated that the sitting to discuss the Kurdish issue in Parliament after 86 years, despite it still not being called the Kurdish issue, was a historical and momentous event.
Kışanak said, ‘‘this is an important development on the way to confronting the Kurdish issue. If we turn and look back we can see that 86 years of the Republic have gone by as the lost years. We have an opportunity in our hands to atone for these lost years.’’ Kışanak appealed for this opportunity to be used wisely and called for military operations to cease so a democratic solution could develop. Without military operations ceasing it will be impossible to solve a colossal problem such as the Kurdish issue said Kışanak.
Kışanak also criticised the approaches and assessments that were blind to the sources of the problem. A plan that has the aim of annihilating the PKK at its axis will not be successful. It will only lead to more pain she said. Kışanak also summarised the governments approach. They say that they are sincere, but we have not seen them take one tangible step in solving this issue she said.
