A New Agenda for the Kurdish Question (Report‪)‬

Terrorist activities have been on the rise in recent months, with many casualties following a relatively quite period in the past four years. A number of military positions were attacked and bombs detonated in city centers, reminiscent of the bloody attacks of the 1990s. The events, which began before the July 22, 2007, elections, led to a heated debate on the Kurdish question and all aspects of the counterterrorism measures. These debates indicated a basic consensus on the fact that the policies followed to date had proved insufficient and ineffective in stopping the bloodshed, and that the question needs to be divorced from its terror dimension in order to reach a permanent solution. In this context the following questions are worth addressing: Why can we not discard the security perspective that reduces the question to terrorism while it is clear that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK, Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan) exploits clashes and benefits from the bloodshed? Is there any comprehensive set of measures to the question at the hands of the government? Why has this question become so grave as to threaten Turkey's integrity and stability? The Kurdish Question and Various Experiences