THTM Executive Board Member Aydemir Güler speaks on the joint report of the Commission for a Terror-Free Turkey: 'It cannot be legitimate'

News: Cenk BAŞBOĞAOĞLU-12punto

‘THIS REPORT WILL NOT SOLVE ANY PROBLEMS’

Aydemir Güler, Executive Board member of the People's Assembly of Turkey (THTM), evaluated whether the commission's report is legitimate and whether it can solve any problems. Güler stated, “It wasn't as if the commission's legitimacy was independent of the agenda... They conducted their work largely behind closed doors, spending months calling in guests and listening to them. We understood what they were spending their time for with the developments in Syria. The People's Alliance was striving to ensure that the primary preference of imperialists in Syria was not the PYD, but HTS. They achieved this. Both of these structures are in the palm of US imperialism. Therefore, we are discussing the legitimacy of a process in which some are competing to win the favor of imperialism; that is the first point.

Secondly, the fact that the commission's framework of work is being drawn by developments in Syria is also an admission that the agenda is not the Kurdish issue. There is a Kurdish issue in Turkey. This issue is that in the period we are in, the equality of citizens cannot be ensured under the yoke of big capital, imperialism, and religious reactionism. On the contrary, where the laboring people are ignored, the Kurdish laborers are not even mentioned.

The report of this commission, which was accepted by a majority, will not solve any problems either. On the contrary, one of the few dimensions of the subject that goes slightly beyond the bargaining over the political future of the PKK and Öcalan is related to expanding the powers of local governments. In today's political climate, this is understood as the loosening of the administrative structure in Turkey. Exactly as imperialism desires. Exactly as the capitalist class, which wants to run wild in other countries within the dreams of Neo-Ottomanism, wishes.

The important part of the matter is that while the commission was working, another step was taken towards the psychological alienation of our Kurdish brothers and sisters from Turkey. The fact that the development in Syria was handled by the mainstream media not on the axis of imperialism, but by fueling hostility towards Kurds, is an important reason for this. The instigator of this hostility was not only the government wing; a chorus that also included right-wing Republicans declared the jihadist HTS a legitimate government. It was ignored that Damascus was taken hostage by Israel.

The commission was supposed to ensure that problems were viewed by overcoming narrow-minded partisanship by organizing listening sessions for months! The result is the exact opposite. Because what could be foreseen has happened, and the negotiations have been locked into bargaining. In the coming period, will they bargain over the square footage of Öcalan's residence? Will they bargain over the criteria for Kurds to learn their mother tongue? Will they bargain over the 'right' of local governments to impose lower minimum wages on Kurds? Regardless of this commission and the report vote, no common will or anything of the sort will emerge. And what does emerge will not be legitimate,” he said.

‘THE CONSTITUTION CANNOT BE DISCUSSED WITH ENEMIES OF THE REPUBLIC’

Regarding the roadmap that the Republican People's Party (CHP) base will draw following the legitimacy debates, Güler said, “Legal regulations, constitutional amendments... The CHP can 'sell' the commission's recommendation to end the trustee practice to its own base. But the message in this direction carries no other meaning than the initiation of a new bargain in which the two newly appointed ministers will take on roles. Now they will discuss which decisions of the ECHR will be interpreted and how...

The idea of amending the Constitution is baseless. The government's main agenda is the liquidation of the Republic in Turkey. A constitutional discussion cannot be held with enemies of the Republic. Whether it is called peace or democracy; no matter what packaging it is put into, we can say in advance that the Republican segments, which make up the majority of Turkey, will not accept the legitimacy of the AKP-MHP-DEM to draft a constitution. Where the process will lead will be determined by the unity of the Republicans and their ability to exert weight on politics.

Everyone knows that the reason for the CHP's presence in the commission is the pressure on it. On one hand, you will adopt a radical discourse against the siege, and on the other hand, you will sign a common vision in the commission report. The CHP center has no other way out than to tell its base that what is being done is 'tactical.' The CHP's radicalism is the radicalism of not losing DEM to the People's Alliance in a possible election alliance. We can guess how much this will satisfy whom,” he said.

‘THE ONLY WAY OUT FOR OUR PEOPLE…’

Regarding what kind of atmosphere Turkish politics will witness after the approval of the report in question, Güler said, “The opponents of the commission, in their justifications, have said that the Kurdish issue will not be solved this way. Weren't they too late to make this determination? But if you handle the subject on a ground completely removed from imperialism, the liquidation of the Republic, and the class nature of the Kurdish issue, it is not serious for some to appear more demanding than DEM.

Republicans and the left must handle the Kurdish issue primarily as a labor issue. A bargaining table of different identities, especially in today's Middle East, only leads to disintegration. This commission can be useful for one thing. That is the necessity for a portion of the Republicans to face the Kurdish issue. The subject should be approached with the aim of answering how our Kurdish citizens can be won over to the Republic and Republicanism. Connecting to the goal of breaking this cycle of poverty, by struggling together for the Republic, equality, and a common future against the order of exploitation and imperialism, is the only way out for our people of all origins,” he said.

News Source: 12punto