This Is A Dirty War...

When the clashes began again recently in the Southeast, I wrote about how “war is an extraordinary situation and has its own unique psychology.” Those overseeing wars try to convince their supporters of the necessity of the war at hand; the next stage is to try and convince the global arena.
If you don't motivate your warriors well, they don't fight well. If you can't convince the public, whose support you rely on, of the imperative necessity behind the war, they of course will not support you. And then, because of globalization and all that it has wrought, you are obliged to convince the global arena as well that you are in the right. If you don't do all this, you will face serious political, economic and diplomatic problems. And in this era, because of the realities that guide our lives and the various interest-based relations all around us, this would mean losing the war.

The battle currently being waged by Ankara against the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK)/Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is mainly justified by the argument that it is a “struggle against terrorism.” This is a weak argument, though. Because until quite recently, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) leadership was engaged in serious peace talks with these same groups and had largely convinced the Turkish public that this was the right thing to do.

In many ways, it was inevitable that Ankara would turn to the rhetoric of “nationalism” to defend its actions. After all, nationalism is still the most effective ideological tool there is when it comes to manipulating the masses. State leaders have always been careful to keep nationalism waiting in the wings, knowing its power. And recent words from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that have emphasized both his own non-Armenianness as well as his hopes to see “local and national” deputies emerge from the coming election have all been with the intent of reawakening some of the nationalist tendencies that may have dozed off during the peace process.

In the meantime, the PKK's strongest argument is that the problems they face have to do with being Kurdish, and that they face a mentality that brushes this argument aside, asking, “What Kurdish problem are you even talking about?” When it comes to the topics of “peace” and a “solution,” the AKP wields a pragmatism that reduces the question to one of whether these topics will win it the coming election.

At the same time, among the Kurds, there is suddenly a real way to carry out a political struggle on a democratic playing field. In other words, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). And the fact that the HDP's language of peace and solutions is meeting with a strong response in the political public arena.

Unfortunately, my own columns focusing on the possible results from plunging the Southeast into an atmosphere of state of emergency were not wrong. This is a dirty war. An unjust war. A war which no one will win. A war in which crimes against humanity are being committed. A war that will damage our human values.

And if you want to know the truth, I never said very loudly what I saw coming. Perhaps it was because I hoped, on the inside, that I would be wrong.

In response to loudly voiced worries about how Turkey appears to be “returning to the '90s,” pro-government columnists are quick to defend Ankara, noting “No! Because in the '90s, ‘we' were not the state. Now that we run the state, we'll oversee a ‘clean' war against terrorism...”

Those who really believe this, and whose intentions are good, can be simply dismissed as ignorant. But those whose aim with these kinds of explanations is to cover up what's happening now share responsibility for the crimes against humanity we see occurring.

Two photographs in particular are very telling when it comes to showing the true developments in the Southeast. One shows the dead body of a youth who was killed in clashes in Şırnak being dragged behind an armored vehicle. The immediate response to this shocking image was that it was “Photoshopped,” with some providing another photograph that appeared to show the same vehicle without a dead body tied to it. But as it turned out, the real Photoshop job had been done to the second image, and not the first. And in any case, a video followed shortly thereafter showing the dead body being dragged.

The second photograph was shot in the city of Nusaybin, where there is a strict curfew in place. The image shows citizens trying to make their way to a hospital, carrying white flags in hand, hoping not to attract fire from the sharp shooters on roofs throughout the embattled city. Yes, this is a dirty war. And those responsible for it are committing crimes against humanity.

CAFER SOLGUN (Cihan/Today's Zaman)