The İmralı Enthusiasm!..

The İmralı Enthusiasm!..

Let us note with the boldest of strokes how some people are reveling in a state of victory-drunk euphoria following the decision to send three individuals from the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM)—which waged the War of Independence and founded the Republic of Turkey—to the feet of the leader of the separatist terrorist organization, the murderer of 40 thousand of our people.

Pervin Buldan, the "queen of İmralı," who declared that with this decision, which is of "historical importance and value," they would walk with more confident steps toward the resolution of the Kurdish issue and the construction of a democratic Turkey, reacted to the CHP's refusal to join this trajectory with the implication: "The main opposition party is the DEM Party. Period."

DEM co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan also announced that they had "noted the CHP's decision somewhere," while claiming that "the CHP's decision not to provide members has hurt and wounded the Kurds."

After stating, "Despite their rather timid, superficial, and insufficient justifications, as someone of Kurdish origin, the CHP's decision did not hurt or wound me at all; on the contrary, it made me very happy," let us look at why they want the CHP to be complicit in the crime so badly.

NOT A 100-YEAR-OLD WOUND, BUT A RECKONING

Bakırhan decreed the following:

"If we are not going to take responsibility now to heal a 100-year-old wound, when will we take responsibility?.. We are not telling any party to 'abandon your principles.' But peace is a historical responsibility that transcends all parties and principles... We expected the founding party, which has a historical responsibility in this century-old issue, to be braver... Preferring the reflexes of the past instead of a founding intellect is in no one's interest... The founding party must stand by peace... History will record this moment, and when the time comes, the youth will one day ask the question, 'Why didn't you take responsibility?' I hope those who do not take responsibility study the answer to this question well."

The "100-year-old wound" clearly refers to: the dismantling of the Treaty of Sèvres, the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey based on the sovereignty of the Turkish Nation.

Look at this audacity!.. On one hand, they tell the party that founded the Republic of Turkey, "We are not saying abandon your principles," and on the other hand, they claim that "peace" is a historical responsibility above all parties and principles, and offer: "Come, be a partner in our destruction of this state you founded."

The other co-chair, Tülay Hatimoğulları, while criticizing the CHP's İmralı decision, made the following confessions:

"The fact that the founding party of this country, of the Republic, refrains from going to the Island and its approach to this process has been met with sadness by us. We also express with sadness that the codes created by the 100-year-old policy of denial and extermination are being resurrected again and again. Yet, what we wanted to create in this period was to eliminate these codes... In this period, our greatest goal was again to break the status quo... We once again invite everyone to contribute with all their might to the resolution of the Kurdish issue, which has been deepened by the 100-year-old policy of denial and extermination."

As can be seen, she too bases the so-called "Kurdish issue" on Lausanne and the founding principles of the Republic of Turkey, and wants the country's and the Republic's founding party to abandon its founding codes.

What about the message sent by former co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who is in Edirne Prison, and former Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Selçuk Mızraklı to the conference held in Germany titled "Shaping Living Together: The Solution Process and Future Perspectives in Turkey," where they said, "First and foremost, it would not be morally right to oppose the mutual will of the parties holding weapons to end the war"?

These people are officially equating the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) with the separatist terrorist organization!..

Can there be a wedding without the groom? The terrorist leader in İmralı also stated in a message sent to the same conference that "the historical threshold they are at today is of a nature that will affect the fate of Turkey, the Middle East, and the Kurdish society."

Fine; even before this enthusiasm of the DEM members, the terrorist leader, in his so-called call on February 27, complained about the "monolithic interpretations of the Republic" and demanded the "recognition of the Kurdish reality"... The PKK, at its so-called dissolution congress, declared Turks "genocidal," criticized Lausanne and the 1924 Constitution, and pointed to the 1921 Constitution... The leaders of the PKK/KCK in Europe, who are expected to return to Turkey and engage in politics, called for "dismantling Lausanne"... Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, the DEM Group Deputy Chair who was recently selected for the delegation to go to İmralı, embraced the PKK's targeting of Lausanne and the 1924 Constitution by saying, "We need a real confrontation. What happened at Lausanne is a truth, and the place where that monolithic structure in the '24 Constitution brought the country is also a truth."... Co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan said, "They are offering an alternative that breaks the traditional nation-state model"... Even at the first meeting of the PKK commission in the TBMM, DEM member Meral Danış Beştaş explained that "while the 1921 Constitution carried a spirit based on local administration, decentralization, and multiculturalism, the 1924 Constitution abandoned this pluralist understanding and introduced a citizenship definition based on a monolithic understanding instead."

Well, isn't emphasizing these things while the ink on the decision to go to the feet of the terrorist leader has not yet dried, literally a challenge and a defiance against the Republic of Turkey?

Shame on those who speak, those who make them speak, and those who, despite these challenges, look toward the road to İmralı!..

WHO ARE YOUR ANCESTORS?

It wasn't just the DEM members who were enthusiastic; there are others too.

For example, an AKP deputy, after saying, "Whoever doesn't go, doesn't go, this commission will go to İmralı and sit with Öcalan," spoke as follows:

"The CHP never stood by the Kurdish people. The CHP executed our ancestors; it has done nothing for the sake of the Kurdish people to this day."

The ones he deems worthy of "ancestry" are presumably the previous versions of the terrorist leader who served the British, like Sheikh Said, Seyit Rıza, and so on... Congratulations!..

Another AKP deputy, perhaps to avoid losing the success (!) of the new process to the MHP, said, "We are the ones who started this business; the MHP wasn't there at the time. While the MHP was against it, we carried out the Oslo process, the Habur process, the National Unity and Brotherhood process, and the solution process with a strong will, changing the names each time."

I wonder if they will also take responsibility for the 700 martyrs we gave following those processes?!

Speaking of responsibility; MHP Deputy Chairman İsmail Özdemir reacted to Mustafa Destici, the Chairman of the BBP, a partner of the People's Alliance who opposes the opening and the terrorist leader being taken as an interlocutor, as follows:

"What was your purpose while you were wandering from ministry to ministry with various demands and justifications? What has changed now? What does the People's Alliance mean to you? What are you trying to achieve without taking any responsibility or burden for Turkey and our national goals?... What kind of game are they using you in against the People's Alliance, which is determined to protect our national unitary structure today?"

We explained above the goals of the DEM, with whom they are in an opening partnership, regarding our unitary and national structure. Let us suffice with asking what kind of responsibility the MHP, which has no role in the state or government, has undertaken.

As you know, another partner of the People's Alliance is HÜDA PAR. They are not against meeting with the terrorist leader, but against going to his feet. But Chairman Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu, explaining very well what this means, said, "With this meeting, the DEM wanted to show that Öcalan is the representative of all Kurds in the resolution of the Kurdish issue, and that he should negotiate with the state on behalf of all Kurds in this matter. This was the main purpose of their persistent demand for this meeting." On the other hand, he also claimed, "Kurds founded this state together with Turks, but later their existence was denied, their language was denied, and they were subjected to massacres."

While US-Israeli projects are being put into effect at full speed in our country and region, let us also leave Bay Kemal, who directed criticisms at the CHP such as, "It must be part of the process to eliminate the scourge of Israel and America, which are waiting for us to stumble in the Middle East, and for the supreme interests of the state. It must take risks and put its hand under the stone by looking at the issue from above politics... Being on the right side of history often requires courage and determination," to history.

MAY THE TERRORIST LEADER NOT GIVE UP BECAUSE THE CHP IS NOT THERE

We said the CHP's stance was "quite timid, superficial, and insufficient"; let us elaborate on this.

Like Ahmet Davutoğlu and HÜDA PAR, it objected not to meeting with the terrorist leader, but to going to his feet... It cited political cases, trustees, and the non-implementation of Constitutional Court (AYM) and European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decisions as reasons... Along with this, it embraced the "Kurdish issue" and announced that they would "support the steps to be taken for peace to the end."

Against the DEM members who reacted with delusions to the fact that they would not go to İmralı, it also acted very submissively, defending that "they did not leave the commission," "the process is continuing," "they do not deny the existence of the Kurdish issue," and "they will list their proposals when legal regulations are discussed in the future."

Yet, the only thing that Atatürk's and the Republic of Turkey's founding party should have said loudly was, "We have no business with those who deny the founding principles of the state and Lausanne. We will not be complicit in the division of the country and the nation."!..

Anyway, for now, their refusal to go to the feet of the terrorist leader is better than nothing.

Would you like it if the terrorist leader, who insists on sitting at the table with the founding will, does not accept the others just because the CHP is not coming?!

Müyesser YILDIZ

November 24, 2025