Intellectual Mobilization Must Be Declared against the Terror of the PKK

The absence of reports of martyrs in the past year or so and the opportunity to build a more peaceful climate in the region is welcomed by everyone. However, there is a clear need for national vigilance in the face of increasing violence by the PKK and its comrades-in-arms in the Southeast and other provinces, particularly Istanbul, in recent days. It appears that the PKK does not regard this ‘peace process' as a peace process at all, but as one of withdrawing in order to recuperate. The PKK is continuing to man checkpoints, to block roads, to kidnap people and to commit blackmail and is misinterpreting the warm and patient attitude of the state and taking advantage of it. What needs to be done under the current circumstances?

1. The terror of the PKK, which wants to split the Southeast away from Turkey and to establish an independent communist Kurdistan in the region, is a national problem. We are looking at the largest communist uprising in the history of the Republic. Solving national problems overrides political aims. The nation needs to see that all the countries’ parties are united and acting as one. Therefore, the steps to be taken in solving this national crisis need to be determined at a conference bringing together the government and the opposition and also attended by the president, the chief of the General Staff and other military commanders.
2. The idea of splitting the Southeast away from Turkey is a plan still widely discussed by think-tanks in America and Europe and around which new borders and maps are being drawn. These circles regard the PKK as a most useful organization in terms of making that plan a reality. External support for the organization is therefore still continuing; it is described as a so-called “fighter for freedom” and efforts are being made to have it removed from the U.N. terror list.
3. The PKK is a Marxist, Leninist and Stalinist organization. It gives its members ideological training, teaching them communism before they learn how to fire a gun. Propaganda is used to encourage young people to head to the mountains to join it. That philosophical propaganda and education is the lifesblood of the organization and of terror. Yet the most important factor has been ignored in Turkey’s decades-long fight against terror, and there has been no cultural activity aimed at eliminating the intellectual foundation that nourishes terror. 
4. Clichés and demagoguery are of no use against an organization with an ideal and a cause, albeit a false one. One may think one is making progress with political measures, but in fact one is not. The only way of ensuring progress  is to change the other side’s ideological structure through a change of mind. The organization will never abandon its weapons and go home so long as their minds remains unchanged. A change of mind is only possible through education. It needs to see the hollow nature of its ideas. The idols in its mind need to be shattered and replaced by true facts.
5. The PKK and other Leftist organizations continually engage in intellectual indoctrination of the young but many of our young people are not sufficiently politically aware. Only through education can young people grasp the importance of union and unity, be conscious of the ideal of a great Turkey, be aware of the problems in Turkish-Islamic lands and have the consciousness with which to find a solution. The state must raise awareness in young people by including ‘national consciousness’ in the curriculum.
6. The supposed scientific foundation underpinning the PKK and all other Marxist-Leninist organizations is Darwinism. Young people in school are taught nonsense about their being ‘the product of chance’ and about ‘the evolution of history.’ The teaching in schools of ideas such as ‘our forebears were descended from animals’ and ‘primitive communal societies existed in the past and then evolved to assume their current forms’ makes it much easier to build communist ideology upon them. When these organizations approach young people and talk about ‘revolution is part of the evolution of history,’ young people are not sufficiently well informed to refute them because the education provided in schools supports that deception. Therefore, while Darwinism and materialism, and even communism, fascism and all other such movements, should be taught in schools, young people must also be taught their scientific refutation.
7. Education for young people is urgently needed, not just in the Southeast, but in all regions. The loveless, angry, hate-filled, aggressive and superficial language used by young people in the social media points to a major threat. Ignoring that threat means preparing the ground for a national disaster. A country’s basic need is for spiritual regeneration. It is impossible for a country to be strong with economic regeneration and building roads and dams and plants unless this is combined with spiritual regeneration.
8. This situation cannot be resolved with traditional classes in religion and ethics. The priority must be true faith. The most effective means of establishing that is by teaching the signs leading to faith. A realistic, rational and vivid language based on concrete evidence must be employed against mental confusion, rather than a ponderous and inward-looking one that goes against the flow of life.
9. Such education can be provided in the Southeast through the state and social society organizations. All means need to be mobilized for that education, with no discrimination against any charity or community. Differences of opinion between groups, charities, foundations, communities and parties are unimportant in the face of Turkey being broken up. These differences must be set aside and a common attitude against division must be adopted.
10. In promising peace to the people of the region, the PKK uses the superstition of the fanatics for its own advantage. Fanaticism, which regards women as semi-entities, which opposes modernity and the joy of youth, which is ignorant and cruel and ruthless and has no feelings of truth and justice, represents an ideal foundation for the PKK. The PKK and its extensions stress how they will ‘liberate women’ and ‘value young people.’ Yet real liberation, equality and justice for women will come from full compliance with the Qur’an.  This card can only be removed from the PKK’s hand by spreading Qur’anic moral values against fanaticism.

Our Kurdish brothers have suffered for many years. We are now in a time when their wounds will be healed and the Southeast will become like London or Paris. This is a time when Turkey will grow together and Islamic unity will be established. Our brothers, who suffered so much at the hands of the alleged organization Ergenekon for many years, have now fallen into the clutches of the communist, Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist, repressive, cruel and ruthless PKK. It would be wrong to abandon our brothers to a new scourge when they have just escaped an old one. Neither the state nor the nation will turn a blind eye to such a thing.