The Kurdish Problem In Türkiye
...IN TÜRKiYE
A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD
The prosperity of the Western cities in Türkiye unfortunately is not seen in its Eastern cities where Kurdish minorities used to live. Lack of education and employment, in addition to economical hardships in Southeastern Türkiye, force the local young people either to emigrate to the Western Türkiye with a hope to find better conditions, or the same conditions force them to be guerrillas in the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party) troops. This shows that the Kurdish youth don't have many options: dying of hunger or of a bullet seems to be the unchangeable fate of them unless they can get out of their poor backward region.
In Türkiye, it is the duty of military forces to fight against any separatist movement like Kurdish terrorism created by PKK. This has been the most accepted way of keeping state unity since the early days of the young Turkish Republic. Yet, no success in resolving this critical problem could have been achieved in the last two decades through such a brutal approach which costs the government $8 billion annually. Although the Turkish military with its mobilized staff of 1.5 million is the most dissuading and strongest force in the near east region, it has been unable to cope with the Kurdish terrorists' guerrilla tactics. James Brown, director of John G. Tower Center for political Studies, at Southern Methodist University, says that "conflicts such as these are not easily resolved, but they may be contained. In the case of Türkiye, the Kurds are not in a position to win. On the other hand [the government in] Ankara will face great costs in containing this conflict politically, economically, and humanistically (128).
The experience of the last 20 years shows that Turkish politicians should seek for a civil method rather than martial means of healing this ever bleeding wound in Southeast Türkiye. It is time to decide...
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