PKK To Replace The Gendarmerie

It has been announced that the gendarmerie will be attached to the Interior Ministry. According to the amendments proposed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), gendarmerie forces will be subordinated to governors in the provinces. Although it is marketed as a democratization step, this move has nothing to do with democratic reforms. It is just one of the promises made to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) during the secret talks Turkish government officials held with PKK leaders in Oslo. This proposal is the first step towards replacing the gendarmerie with PKK militants in the medium term.

Actually, I have long been writing about the return of the PKK to the region in the guise of police or gendarmerie. The AKP finally took a step towards implementing it.
As you will remember, during a meeting with lawyers and his sister Fatma Öcalan on March 18, 2009, the PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan said the gendarmerie would be replaced by the PKK. "In coming years, the village guards, soldiers and police may withdraw from the region and they may be replaced by an 'internal security organization' in the form of a 'people's militia.' Former PKK members may be employed to this end," he disclosed.
In an audio recording posted on the Internet in March 2014, Öcalan confirmed this plan, noting that he had discussed this matter with the deputy head of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and came to an agreement. "We are discussing everything in all respects. For instance, I discussed with an MİT deputy head the establishment of the village security unit, elected to office from the pro-Kurdish movement [PKK] as well as the employment of PKK members as traffic police, municipal police, guards, etc., subordinated to municipalities. Why not establish a Kurdish unit within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK)? I discussed these matters with the state. We were able to reach a certain level of agreement. But, society should be readied to accept this... If needed, 50 bills will be passed. The PKK will be legitimized with these bills" (see my article in the Taraf daily, March 26, 2014).
As is seen, Öcalan had already bargained about these matters with the MİT. Subordination of the gendarmerie to the Interior Ministry is part of this bargain. Remember that during the Oslo talks, MİT head Hakan Fidan promised to PKK leaders that they would localize the bureaucracy and attach everything, including the education system, to the governors. In parallel with the talks held in Oslo, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had argued in 2012 that governors should be elected to office.
In my article dated Feb. 29, 2012 in the Taraf Daily, I touched on this matter: "The defendants at the court case against the members of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) will be released, and the bureaucrats who are close to the Hizmet movement will be purged in order to lure the PKK to the negotiations. Currently, the accords do not urge the PKK to lay down arms. The PKK will return to the region as the police force. Moreover, the PKK does not agree to pull out of Turkey until it garners assurances for its terms and conditions.”
On March 6, 2012, I wrote: "The defendants at the KCK case will be released in return for luring the PKK to the negotiations. The police chiefs who conducted the operations against the KCK will be jailed."
In my article dated June 10, 2012, I maintained that "the police officers and soldiers who served in the southeast will be put on trial as war criminals" according to the Oslo accords.
Today, we see that initially, the police officers who conducted operations against the KCK are being sent to jail. When the gendarmerie is subordinated to the Interior Ministry, the soldiers will be prosecuted like these police officers. This is what the Oslo accords indicate.
After the protests regarding the Kobani crisis abated, Öcalan told the AKP to take the steps that were supposed to be taken before the elections. The most important step concerns how PKK members are employed when they return to the country. The PKK is not willing to lay down its arms. As Öcalan suggests, the PKK seeks to be employed as the police and security organization for the region. The government made such a promise in Oslo.
I was informed that the government sent Mehdi Eker to Öcalan to convince him to put an end to the Kobani protests. Referring to the Oslo accords, Öcalan told Eker to take the necessary steps. This was the reason why Efkan Ala was overshadowed by Eker in the wake of the Kobani protests. The government's move to attach the gendarmerie to the Interior Ministry is actually a message to Öcalan, saying, "We are taking the steps you want us to take."
Let us not deceive ourselves; the gendarmerie will be replaced by the PKK in the medium term. But this is not the only problem. The PKK also seeks to control entire cities. This is the main reason for the fight over the cities...

EMRE USLU (Cihan/Today's Zaman)