Cheers of joy and wails of bereavement: two images that live side-by-side in this part of Turkey. In this rugged, mountainous stretch of southeast Anatolia, it is rare to find tranquility, especially these days as the Syrian civil war rages on the other side of the border and the threat of genocide looms over the Kurds in Kobani. One expected Istanbul, Turkey's eternal heart, to have felt their agony and yearned to help. But neighbourhoods on the city's European and Asian shores are teeming with marches of relatives, kin and sympathisers. The demonstrations express a curious mixture of joy and grief. Women display ageing pictures of young men, all in their late teens or early twenties, all gone missing two decades ago during the armed clashes in southeast Anatolia in the 1990s. Nothing is known of these young men. Most likely they were killed, but where are their remains? Where is any information that could give these women some certainty that might alleviate their anguish? The men have wrapped themselves in flags. The flags are red, white and green and feature a sun with glowing rays in the centre. This is the flag of Kurdistan, the dreamed for state that will be born. The certainty of this is conveyed by the resolute expressions on their faces and their triumphant postures. This explains the mingling of happiness and sadness in the marches. Naturally, pictures of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan abound. And chants ring out, cursing Turkish ultra nationalists, the Grey Wolves and the police and security agents who conspired with their notorious death squads. These are the forces the demonstrators hold responsible for the death of their loved ones and the plight of their cause. In the 15 years that I have lived in Turkey, I have never seen anything like the wave of almost daily demonstrations that has swept the country's old and new capitals during the past few weeks. The chants of condemnation and the cries calling for the restoration of the usurped homeland have become familiar. A watershed has been reached, the taboo has broken and these ideas and sentiments now cry out in the open. And, to be fair, an influential segment of the ruling elite is looking on with an element of grudging approval. On the other hand, the other side of the conflict — for there are two sides and this is the crux of the issue — appears forgotten. The international community, due to the encroaching threat of ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), appears unreserved in its support of the Kurdish point of view and almost deliberately willing to overlook the thousands of Turkish soldiers and civilians who also lost their lives in the three-decade long Turkish-Kurdish conflict. Was the blood of these martyrs, as they are referred to in the daily literature expresses the Turkish collective conscious, shed in vain? The haemorrhage continues due to the guerrilla warfare waged from time to time by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) inflicting painful human and material losses. This is an organisation that the West, in Europe and the US, had branded as terrorist. Today, those same powers are ready to turn a blind eye to its appalling past and to help market an image to world public opinion to the effect that the brave resistance of the Kurds defending their lives and homes in Kobani against the ISIS assault is a global issue. Hence, the Kurds are an effective and influential force in the Middle East and should be taken into consideration and included in all matters, foremost among which is the redrawing of the map of this region, beginning with arrangements that resolve the Kurdish question. What is amazing — and I cite here the views of many Turkish citizens — is that decision-makers in Ankara and, specifically, the heads of the ruling Justice and Development Party (JDP) are helping in their own way to feed the disregard for the other side of the conflict. They had hoped and perhaps cling to the hope that they would be the ones to put an end to the chronic secessionist ailment and, hence, go down in history as the solvers of the Kurdish question. However, after two years of direct negotiations no essential progress has been made in spite of some qualitative concessions. Kurdish officials have accused the JDP government of issuing false promises and trying to deceive everyone. That government is not really interested in solving the problem, said Cemil Bayik, one of the co-founders of the PKK and co-chairperson of the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (GCK). It is concerned only with eliminating the PKK. Towards this end it is playing for time. But it will never be able to stop the uprising and the resistance. Bayik, who was in Austria speaking to European officials, went further. He charged that Turkish military units were actively cooperating with ISIS and furnishing it with material and logistical support in order to help it erode the gains made by his fellow Kurds in Syria. In addition, he said, the Turkish government was using ISIS to gain a foothold in the region. But it will fail, if it hasn't already, he said, taking the occasion to point out that the Kurds in “southern Kurdistan” had established autonomous rule and that, soon, the same would happen in “Suruç, Urfa”, by which he was referring to “northern Kurdistan” — namely southeast Turkey. While many in Turkey are convinced of the need to find an equitable solution, they cannot imagine that a solution would extend to partitioning their cherished republic. Yet, many have also reached the conviction that a conspiracy is afoot against their country in order to spite their president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In all events, it is not odd, given the current climate, that the Turkish army would issue a stern caution against attempts to divide the country. The statement warned that such attempts would begin by inciting domestic rebel movements, a phenomenon that has actually occurred, and the signs are that it is likely to expand. If countries that are in sensitive positions, such as Turkey, do not strengthen their border security they will not be able to control the rebel movements that are erupting within their borders, which would augment the risk of territorial disintegration. For this reason, firm and rapid measures are necessary. Yet, the Turkish department of chief of staffs did not directly allude to a crucial matter that needs to be taken into account before devising the mechanisms for safeguarding Anatolian unity. That matter is the foreign policy pursued by Ankara. Masterminded by none other than Erdogan, that policy succeeded in turning Turkey's friends and allies against it and openly accusing the power-that-be in Ankara of aiding and abetting ISIS, Al-Nusrah Front and other jihadist and takfiri groups. Incidentally, Zaman and other Turkish and international news outlets reported last week that US Vice-President Joe Biden, contradicting a statement from the White House no less, denied that he had apologised to Erdogan for claiming that Turkey had assisted ISIS and other extremist groups in Syria. Clearly, if that claim is correct, Ankara needs to change course if the measures it takes to protect its domestic peace and unity are to be effective. But is Erdogan prepared to do that?
