What Really Happened In The Murder Of The Three PKK Members? – OpEd

Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan
By JTW -- (April 10, 2013)

By Ihsan Bal

I am obliged to Mr Cemil Çiçek, President of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, for the subject which I discuss today. Mr Çiçek asked: “Just what has the mighty French state done regarding the killing in Paris of the three PKK members? We have all forgotten about it. There were two or three days of discussion and then what came out of it? The case has virtually been closed but shouldn’t be. This matter is France’s responsibility. It has to clean up this filth.”

If it had just been an ordinary person asking this question, someone with no past and trying to deal with today’s problems with blank memory, rather than the president of the Grand National Assembly, it would not have aroused much public interest.

You will recall that just at the point when there was heated debate going on in Turkey about the launching of a new peace process to solve the problem of terrorism, news arrived from France that three women members of the PKK had been murdered in a high security building. It burst like a bombshell onto the news agenda.

As always happens, this news horrified the whole of society at the time but dropped out of the agenda as soon as it ceased to be fresh. In other words, the passing of time overcame our desire to get the murder solved.

In fact we are all familiar with that part of the affair which concerns us.

Every time there is an important event, we go on about every detail of the affair with extreme excitement and a slightly troubled eagerness.

Masses of things are said. Following the traditions of the coffee-house, highly circumstantial interpretations are offered. But afterwards we have neither the patience nor the will-power needed to follow up the ideas involved nor to pursue the matter properly or find out what it was really consisted about.
Where does Europe stand?

OK, that is the story as far as we are concerned. What about Europe’s story?

Mention of the very name ‘Europe’ brings to mind economic development, civilisation and modernity, and above all, freedom, human rights, democracy and law. That is the European tale.

The killings in France are not an isolated instance. There have been tens or perhaps hundreds of similar happenings.

When Turks are attacked in Germany, either the culprits cannot be caught or those responsible are identified years later but because of the passing of time, the story has lost its topicality or even been forgotten.

Faith in justice is replaced by regretfulness arising from years of empty hopes.

Whereas we were taught that in that country the quest for law and justice and appreciation of them were very strong and that there are wonderful judges in Berlin. However unfortunately the people responsible for the shooting of Turkish shopkeepers one by one on their own premises have been left unidentified, apart from those who directly carry out the shootings.

And what should one say about the tragicomic trial in Belgium?

I am referring to the story of Fehriye Erdal who opened the door of her office at the top security storey the building where she worked to Mustafa Duyar. Duyar then murdered Özdemir Sabancı, the second man in the Sabanci Group, Turkey’s top industrial conglomerate, along with a general director of the company and a secretary.

At the time a great deal was said about the role of Fehriye Erdal, a member of the outlawed DHKP/C, and her links and connections. Much was written about her. But sadly: today it has all been forgotten.

But what sticks most clearly in people’s memories is that the Belgians did not return Fehriye Erdal to Turkey but instead are still going through the forms of trying her. Requests for her repatriation have been refused on the grounds, as everyone will recall, the death penalty exists in Turkey. (Turkey has in fact abolished the death penalty.)

What is even more interesting is that Turkey’s requests for Erdal to go on trial in Belgium have also been rejected. Because the Belgian courts are of the opinion that she could not be convicted under their country’s anti-terrorism laws. The grounds for that ruling, made public in November 2005, are that the gun used in the crime was not a fully automatic weapon.

It is a strong possibility that we shall now encounter something in France resembling these tragicomic legal processes.

In the final analysis, if we manage to free ourselves from obsession with current events we would be able to see more clearly that there is both an internal and an external dimension in the struggle against terrorism. And that the external dimension of terrorism is something we should never neglect.

So really, why were three members of the PKK slain in France, often accepted as the cradle of modern civilization?

Ihsan Bal, Head of USAK Science Committee

*This article was first published in HaberTürk newspaper on 30 March 2013.
Source eurasiareview