I followed President Erdoğan’s statements related with the monitoring committee, from Diyarbakır. There was an enthusiastic expectation related with Newroz. Following the President’s statements, the mood had shifted quickly. It’s being stated that the President’s criticisms are not related with the essence of the process; however, at the same time, people were asking “Will it be the same as the Hakan Fidan incident?” Since the President has the final say, they were seeking an answer to the “Can the monitoring committee be abandoned?” question. There were discussions over whether the government looked after their willpower or not. On Friday, I was at the Mardin-Cizre line. I’ve come together with HDP officers and opinion leaders. Suddenly, I found myself within message traffic. Öcalan’s Newroz message arrived at that moment. However, there was an argument ongoing with Qandil. Following the statements of the President, they were insisting on removing a sentence from Öcalan’s message. From that point on, I’ve pursued that sentence. There was a cover reference to that in the Deputy Prime Minister, Bülent Arınç’s announcement. This situation increased my curiosity even further. The part, which had been removed from Öcalan’s message, was the date he gave for the gathering of the PKK congress. In his Newroz message, Öcalan clearly made a calling to the PKK to gather the congress in order to end the 40-year-long conflict period. However, there was also a date in the undisclosed part. Öcalan was calling the PKK to gather the congress on April 15th. This sentence has been removed. There was also a strong emphasis related with the Tomb of Suleiman Shah. This emphasis had been done from the point of common history knowledge; however, it had been rounded as Eşme.
In Öcalan’s message, there were elements, which have gone beyond his Newroz 2013 announcement and reinforces the common announcement in February 28th. If there was a date also given, then we would have taken a step further. I have watched the two Newroz in Mardin and Diyarbakır. The masses shown to everyone, with their enthusiastic participations, that they are supporting Öcalan’s disarmament calling.
This Newroz passed by under a message bombardment. In the Newroz square, under heavy rain, I listened to Öcalan’s message. After I passed the muddy roads, completely soaked under the rain, this time I listened to Bülent Arınç’s speech with high “specific weight”. Arınç said that President Erdoğan knew of all the details and that he has no news from the monitoring committee. Besides, Arınç felt the necessity to state that the government is conducting the resolution process. Arınç made this announcement, in a Government spokesman role, and said “we possess our willpower and we are conducting the resolution process”.
In the sense of showing where the government stands in these arguments, there will be two important meetings in the Çankaya Kiosk, which will be used for the first time. First of all, there will be a resolution process meeting under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, then the Ministerial Cabinet will start. After both of those meetings, Deputy Prime Minister and Government spokesman Bülent Arınç will be in front of the cameras making announcements related with where the government’s willpower is at in the resolution process and monitoring committee. I would say; pay attention to it.
These are the pains of the transitional process. Then, will these developments serve the purpose of having the President-government relations reach the platform they need to be? They might. However, the course of developments should be seen.
By the way, upon his return from Ukraine, President Erdoğan had striking announcements related with the process. While stating that the photo was given by both parties in Dolmabahçe, he was also saying that he wasn’t informed in relation to the process. Besides, he was qualifying some steps as Öcalan’s self-legitimization attempt.
What’s the situation?
Will this show us the division of opinion between the President, who had gone down in history as the architect of the resolution process, and the government? It will.
Are we encountering another Hakan Fidan case? Despite offering a similarity, this is a slightly different incident. When we correctly analyze the announcements of the President, they are becoming prominent related with the criticisms concerning the administration, not the essence of the process. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even be thought of. Because, he is the architect of this process.
It’s being understood that there is an impression that the process turned into a negotiation between Öcalan and the Government under equal terms.
Is this fixation important? Yes. Is it an objection that might influence the direction of the process from now on? It is. Will this argument have an influence over the questioning of the governemnt’s village and the direction of the process? It will.
If Erdoğan says that the government, whom he worked for as a Prime Minister just until 7 months ago, did not give him information on a crucial matter like the resolution process, then, it means that we are face to face with a serious situation. However, we know that he had been informed of the names in the monitoring committee until the Dolmabahçe agreement. We are also aware that he is not looking at it positively.
What’s this?
Since the formation of AK Party, in 14 August 2001, there were no such frictions, like the ones that had happened in the past 3 months. AK Party had been successful in being a political movement, which does not keep the people busy with their internal arguments. After all, with this aspect they’ve gained the trust of the community. This nation had paid heavy prices for the crises, which had been experienced between Çankaya and Government, the frictions between the President and Prime Ministers. The contention between Özal and Mesut Yılmaz, and, Demirel-Tansu Çiller had prepared the end of both ANAP and DYP, thus, it caused the political lives of these leaders to come to an end. As for the heavy economic and political crisis we had experienced due to the Ecevit-Sezer crisis; I don’t even want to remind you. Those parties and their leaders had come to a political frustration. AK Party’s most crucial specialty was the success in having the nation go through a crisis. After all, if they did, then they would have lost in the first elections, forget about wining 9 victories.
However, I should admit that the recent incidents started to confuse the nation.
It paved the way for questions like “What’s going on?” being asked.
The President – Central Bank argument
The Hakan Fidan incident
And, ultimately, the arguments related with the resolution process.
AK Party had a spell. Masses were preferring AK Party, since they were the symbol of consistency. This spell is being reversed.
