Baydemir-Öcalan polemic

It has emerged that jailed outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’ (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan’s reaction to a statement by Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir’s was harsher than previously thought. Baydemir had said that “guns are not a means to solve the problem; the role of guns in the 21st century is finished.”

As reported by the Fırat news agency, Öcalan lashed out at Baydemir for making such a statement. He then threatened and rebuked him. Many think Öcalan’s anger at Baydemir is a result of two things: jealousy because Baydemir’s statement received much attention from the public, and fears of losing the PKK, which is Öcalan’s biggest bargaining tool.

Vatan’s Ruşen Çakır, who comments on Öcalan’s rebuke of Baydemir, says Öcalan, who frequently makes such moves, wants the Kurdish political movement to begin and end with him. He notes that all PKK figures who attempted to be his rivals, proposed alternative approaches or challenged him have been eliminated, and mostly though violence. “It is interesting that while those who wanted to part ways with the PKK without challenging Öcalan faced few obstacles, those who questioned Öcalan’s absolute authority or were suspected of planning to do so in the future faced much trouble,” Çakır says. But he still does not think that Baydemir’s statement aimed to question Öcalan’s authority. “On the contrary, while saying that the role of guns is finished, Baydemir was trying to show his loyalty to Öcalan because this statement has been made by Öcalan and other PKK administrators many times over. But the fact that the public attributed much importance to Baydemir’s statement seems to have concerned and angered Öcalan and the PKK. If the real cause of this anger is jealousy, the other cause is concern that such moves may damage the PKK’s dialogue with the state,” Çakır explains.

Bugün’s Adem Yavuz Arslan says it is no longer possible for Baydemir to continue to defend his statements or for other BDP figures to make statements in support of Baydemir because both BDP deputies and mayors are hostages of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), the PKK’s urban arm. “I wish some BDP members would come up and defend Baydemir, but this is not possible. A second Kurdish politician making a statement like that of Baydemir’s would help push along the solution to the Kurdish problem. But Öcalan has no intention of freeing the PKK, which is his biggest weapon. Because Öcalan’s only concern is saving himself, he uses the PKK as a tool. This leads him to see statements like that of Baydemir’s as a direct threat to himself. If only other Kurds would stand up and say, ‘We are all Baydemir’.”