Murat Karayilan, one of the PKK leaders, has also confirmed the organization’s de facto pull out from Turkey. If his message to announce the retreat decision is examined carefully, it appears that preliminary preparations for the first phase were made firmly for the safety of the solution process. The PKK’s withdrawal, which is affirmed as the first stage of the solution process, is a giant step. An organization that has not even considered laying down arms until yesterday is now leaving the country, as a part of a process in which the disarmament is the final stage. This is a phenomenon occurring first time ever. Within the frame of a certain mutual consensus, the PKK has taken an opportunity for the first time to become a potential actor in a process with a promising future.
In the meantime, the comparison of the 1999 pull-out process with that of today’s is not possible. Although the developments in 1999 were cautionary and therefore useful, it does not make any sense to corner the 2013 process by using the 1999 process. Besides, not having a solid frame of reference yet regarding the other stages does not lower today’s developments in value. On the contrary, considering the fact that all conspiracy theories pertaining to the first stage have largely fizzled out, cool and collected analyses can be made about the upcoming stages from now on. There are lessons that should be learned by those who turn every single possibility about the arms-related headings - which are directly of interest to the PKK- into a question, in the last month in particular, and then refer to this as “making an analysis”. Can we say that, just by looking into the statements already made, every single possibility is considered or every one of them is agreed upon? Of course, we cannot.
More importantly, though, this is not necessary. The process will continue all in all with its risks, mistakes, and ups and downs. The most powerful guarantee of the solution process is the energy/enthusiasm shown by the People. The PKK and the actors involved in the process no longer have the luxury to possess their own agenda. They have already intensely felt the pressure of the People’s energy.
The PKK is an armed organization that has focused on a single agenda and invested all its energy in a single issue for 30 years. In this perspective, for the first time in its history, the PKK put aside its agenda and looks into its utopia. In this process, what is more difficult than to lay down arms for the PKK is to normalize its self-discovered mythology. The jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in fact has presented an opportunity to the PKK, through his message, for the speedy normalization of its mythology. Karayilan’s statement indicated that the PKK will not waste this opportunity, at least at this stage. Of course, there is no guarantee whether the PKK is to maintain its current rationale all the way to the end.
AN ARMED OR A DEMOCRATIC STRUGGLE?
The existential question for the PKK is: What is to occur after the withdrawal from Turkey is completed?
The answer to this question cannot be found through road maps, agreements or conflict resolutions. The more the PKK realizes the fact that Ocalan’s statement “the period of armed struggle has ended” is actually a strategic decision, the more likely that the second and final stage of the process can be materialized. Besides, there is no link between the final stage of the process and the second leg of it. But this is how the PKK relates to it in its own world. This is actually a big trap. For, the second stage of the process is to experience democracy in-depth; and the only link between democracy and the PKK so far is that the organization has delayed this process for years by causing bloodshed. Independently of the PKK, Turkey must absolutely crown the completion of its democratization steps by making a new Constitution.
In the next phase, the PKK will face the real test as it suffers the difficulties
