Surfing in the news

Then came statements from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which implied some sort of "correlation" or "link" in what appears to be totally unrelated issues ranging from the failure to bring an end to Kurdish separatist terrorism to the repeated collapse over the past many decades of all peace efforts aimed at resolving the Cyprus problem and to what appeared to be intractable domestic security issues.

"We are approaching an end, God willing. The nation will see the linkage between all these apparently unrelated issues," Erdoğan said. That was followed with the publication of a rather interesting series of interviews a prominent journalist, Hasan Cemal of Milliyet, conducted with some prominent members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, gang up on the Kandil mountains in northern Iraq. The publication of the interviews, in which separatist chieftains suggested a resolution of the Kurdish problem through dialogue and implied willingness to lay down arms, coincided with the mass murder of some 45 villagers, including children and pregnant women, in Bilge village in Mardin province in what appeared to be a honor crime coupled with a land dispute.

The Bilge village carnage, in which village guards murdered in cold blood some other village guards and their wives and children, all belonging to the same family, triggered a discussion in the country whether the time had come to bring an end to the 17-year-old practice of the village guard system. While first lady Hayrinüsa Gül traveled to Bilge to express her condolences and assure the remaining villagers that the children whose parents were killed in the carnage would be taken care of by the state, newspapers were reporting remarks made by President Gül on the sidelines of a meeting in Prague that he considered the Kurdish problem to be the No. 1 issue in the country and reiterated that soon there would be some promising developments for a resolution of that key "domestic issue."

As this discussion continued, there was also a debate on the need and the scope of a new constitutional amendment package, the main theme of which appeared to be an effort by the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government to win hearts and minds over a magical formula to make it very difficult, if not to prohibit, party closures by the Constitutional Court and make comprehensive changes in the structure of the court and render it less functional. Naturally, the heads of the high courts of the country, one after the other, commented on the issue and warned Ğ some covertly, some openly Ğ that the "untouchable" articles defining Turkey as a secular, democratic republic adhering to the supremacy of law could not be amended directly or indirectly.

Then came a very rare "deep background" discussion between a senior journalist, İsmet Berkan, the editor in chief of Radikal, and Erdoğan. Even though it was a "deep background" briefing by the premier to Berkan, as well as to Akif Beki, the new Radikal writer who until recently was the head of the Erdoğan’s censure department, pardon, press office, from the impressions of Radikal’s editor, it became apparent that the prime minister has been "cautiously optimistic" about the Kurdish problem; a consideration is under way to rename the "Turkified" settlement names back to their original; it is highly probable that the scope and "independence" of Kurdish private broadcasting will be enhanced in the near future; both the civilian and military authorities as well as bureaucracy are changing their "resistance to taboo issues such as wider rights to ethnic Kurdish population"; the prime minister might bring an end to his rejection of shaking hands with executives of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, and it will not be a surprise if we see Ahmet Türk invited to a meeting with the premier; and Erdoğan is willing to abandon his much accustomed aggressive leadership style, and the "new Erdoğan" will be one seeking compromise rather than trying to impose his views.

And, the prime minister spoke in Malatya: "You see, apparently unrelated things are being proven to be elements of a big knot. Some people [who criticize the so-called Ergenekon probe] are unaware of the realities. When they learn, they will join the caravan as well!"