The Kurdistan debate is a ’political boldness’ issue

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This is not important. What is important is that President Gül’s breakthrough is clogged; steps to be taken for the solution of the Kurdish issue are blocked because the word "Kurdistan" is not a debate over semantics. It is directly about finding a political solution to the issue.

I previously gave the results in-depth. It is needless to repeat them here.

This is what I am interested in.

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After saying, "I did not use such an expression," Gül clarified what actually he meant as follows:

"Inside Iraq there is a regional Kurdish administration in the north of Iraq, according to the Iraqi Constitution. This is what I said. I met their prime minister as well. This is normal.

Various debates occur on such issues. We are dealing with quite difficult matters. So we all should be very careful in the subjects especially as we make progress in struggles with terror, such meaningless and harmful discussions are unnecessary."

That’s fine, Mr. Gül, but don’t you encourage unnecessary discussions the minute you remarked, "I did not say it," although it is normal for you to talk about such matters?

We know that you uttered the expression. How do we know?

We know this through the notes Erdal Åžafak of the Sabah daily, Mustafa KaraalioÄŸlu of the Star daily and Murat Yetkin of the Radikal daily took in the plane on our way to Baghdad.

Then, does it mean that they are all wrong?

Besides, your remarks, "According to the Iraqi Constitution, inside Iraq there is a regional Kurdish administration in the north of Iraq. This is what I said," are incorrect.

Why? Because the "Kurdistan region" is uttered in the articles 4, 117 and 141 of the Iraqi constitution. In Article 141, the word "Kurdistan" is repeated three times and there is no expression of "a regional Kurdish administration in the north of Iraq" stated in the article. Only, the "regional Kurdish administration" is used in Article 141.

That is to say, if you want to say what you want to say by referring to the Iraqi constitution, the text reveals that you are talking about the "regional Kurdish administration."

In a country where Kurds couldn’t be called "Kurds" for years or where the word "Kurdistan" couldn’t be pronounced but people were satisfied to say "Kurds" only, you cannot refer to a regional administration as though you are talking about a municipality. So don’t you see that by acting so could in fact mean the continuation of sequestering the "difficult issues" into dissolution?

This is the heart of the matter. Therefore this is not a discussion of semantics or "unnecessary discussions."

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If nothing else is required for the solution of the Kurdish issue, political "boldness" is certainly necessary. Without "political courage," without showing, or could not showing "political chivalry" to solve this deep multi-dimensional problem and to make any progress in this direction is almost impossible.

The reason is that solution of the Kurdish issue requires the generation of hard-to-digest results, ability to make compromises and the merit to come up with new ideas.

"Political will" only is not enough. "Sine quo none" requires political boldness.

To do all is difficult, quite difficult indeed, but once this is achieved a terrific "award" we all will have.

With the "national consensus" to spread over its influence to the entire region and even to the international community and with self-reconciliation of the Republic inside, Turkey will fly high.

For all these reasons, discussions over "Kurdistan" are necessary. This is not about the semantics at all. For the solution of the Kurdish issue, "political boldness" is vital.