DIYARBAKIR, Turkey – Ordinary people in Diyarbakir supported the imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party leader Abdullah Ocalan’s renewed call Saturday for PKK fighters to end their armed struggle against Turkey, but expressed both optimism and distrust that Ankara would live up to its end of the bargain.
In a Newroz message read out in Diyarbakir, Ocalan suggested a “democratic solution” for the Kurdish problem and said that the new era for Kurds in Turkey "would be based on free, egalitarian, constitutional citizenship within the Republic of Turkey."
"Apo's message makes sense," Ahmet Diroki, a 29-year-old schoolteacher, told Rudaw, referring to Ocalan by his nickname.
However, he thought that promises by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of granting greater rights to the country’s estimated 15 million Kurds are insufficient.
"I don’t trust the Turkish government will give us our rights," he said.
"But what's the alternative? We don’t want to go back to war, so there is no choice but to stop the armed struggle," Diroki observed.
A key part of the Kurdish demands is mother-tongue education in Kurdish at public schools, a right that requires a constitutional amendment.
Some 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed since the PKK took up arms against the state in 1984. In addition, 17,500 Kurdish intellectuals, journalists, businessmen and politicians disappeared and probably died in custody in the 1990s.
Saturday’s message by the 66-year-old Ocalan was the third since Turkey officially announced the Kurdish peace process in early 2013.
”We believe it is necessary for PKK to set up a congress to end the 40-year-long armed struggle” against Turkey, the jailed leader said in his latest letter.
The Turkish government has criticized the PKK for not fully disarming its fighters, but PKK officials argue that Ankara has not taken the essential legal actions needed for full disarmament.
In his first letter, read during Newroz celebrations in 2013, Ocalan declared that “the period of armed struggle is ending, and the door is opening to democratic politics.”
Murat Arif, a pizza baker, did not believe that the Kurds will soon get their desired rights, including the right to education in their language at public schools.
"But we don’t want more bloodshed,” he said. ”I believe that through peaceful methods the Kurds will slowly, step by step, achieve their rights.”
Arif feared that opponents of peace are trying to sabotage the process by acting provocatively and referred to the Lice incident last August, where locals erected a statue of a late PKK war hero. Clashes erupted, killing two people, when Turkish authorities tore it down.
Hacer Sahin, a 28-year old shopkeeper, supported Ocalan’s message, saying he believes the Kurds now will fight in parliament and have better chances with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
"Our previous parties, DTP, BDP, etc., almost only got votes in the eastern part of Turkey. With HDP we can reach a wider audience and get our political demands in the Turkish parliament," Sahin hoped.
The HDP was formed in 2012 as an umbrella party to encompass the BDP and some leftist Turkish parties. HDP will take part in the June 2015 elections, hoping to pass the 10 percent election threshold.
Ayse Ozdemir, a cleaning lady, expressed confidence that the AKP would solve the Kurdish issue.
"If the PKK disarms, the AKP probably will give our rights over time. It is a process and it is unrealistic that the AKP could give us all the rights tomorrow," Ozdemir said.
She referred to the last few years, saying there had been a number of improvements for Kurds under the AKP.
In autumn 2013, Erdogan launched a ”democracy package,” which among other things gave the Kurds the right to Kurdish education at private schools. It also allowed the use of Kurdish letters that do not exist in the Turkish alphabet. Last year, it was announced that the first Kurdish-language university would open soon in Diyarbakir, where hospitals have begun to provide services in Kurdish.
According to the former president of the Diyarbakir Bar Association, Mehmet Emin Aktar, armed struggle can do two things: defeat its opponent or keep focus on the case.
"The PKK has not been able to defeat the Turkish army, which in turn has not been able to defeat the PKK," Aktar told Rudaw.
"If the PKK wanted to put the Kurdish question on the agenda, they have succeeded, and therefore the armed struggle has achieved its purpose," he added.
Aktar felt that the AKP has not done enough to resolve the conflict.
"Erdogan must persuade his Turkish hinterland to accept rights for the Kurds. If he can do that, the rest is easy," he said.
