It was the final days of June in 2010. Prime Minister Erdoğan was stating the following in his speech at the group meeting;

“We had taken the most crucial and vital step related with the resolution of issues. We put an end to denial policies…”

This statement was big and important; “We put an end to denial policies”….

In a sense, this was true. In the past 10 years, the attitude, definition and policies had changed in the view on the Kurdish issue, not only for the political rulership, but also for the whole government, including the General Staff, MGK (National Security Council), security institutions and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Denial had left its place to confession…

Today, the government is delivering the reality of the Kurdish issue with all its economic, social and political identity and ethnical aspects.

AK Party’s democratic initiative in those days and the Resolution Process they’ve started in 2013 were the results of arriving at a certain point.

Now, it’s necessary to look beyond this point. The first condition is seeing.

But what?

This:

The Kurdish issue is an ethnical issue, a community issue. There are some common requests of the Kurdish-rooted majority, which festers this issue, within this frame.

At the first glance, these confront us as identity demands.

However, the Kurdish issue cannot be identified only with identity and cultural rights.

At the same time, it’s a political issue. This issue reflects the desires of the Kurdish people to govern themselves to a certain degree….

What does “self-governing” mean?

Without any doubt, this involves a wide array that ranges from reinforcing the local administrations to becoming an independent state. There is a formula to live together, via democracy and politics in a democratic order on one end, and separatism on the other.

Politics and time will designate this formula….

When approached from this angle, the matter of democratic autonomy, which is being argued today and which will undoubtedly gain importance gradually, can be a station for both politics and resolution within this frame.

How?

This station, if used “out of conflict, correctly and as an integrator”, bears enough quality to meet the following “trilogy of necessity”.

If the self-governing possibility of the Kurds is being activated in consent over politics and democracy under these conditions, then the way to the resolution of the Kurdish issue will be paved considerably.

The armed organization will be liquidated, Kurds will become pluralistic, and they’ll meet the virtues of democracy within their own internal politics.

The matter here is breaking the government-PKK monopoly over the issue.

There are great differences between the democratic autonomy under this monopoly and the arguments and the autonomy argument, which will be conducted over politics and democracy.