Zana’s remarks

Zana said that she has never lost hope in Erdoğan, who she said is the person who has the power to solve the Kurdish issue. BDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş criticized Zana for her remarks, saying: “Whoever is hopeful about Erdoğan [regarding the Kurdish issue] is naive. This is thinking like the Justice and Development Party [AK Party].” Given the fact that Zana was a hawkish figure in Kurdish politics, her constructive attitude is of crucial importance today and several columnists see her comments as promising for an eventual solution to the Kurdish problem.

According to Milliyet’s Derya Sazak, Zana’s statements mark a breaking point for Kurdish politics and the BDP, which associates the solution of the Kurdish problem with Kandil [the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) administration] and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.  In Sazak’s view, even if the BDP administration interprets Zana’s trust in the government with naivety, something needs to be done to end the bloodshed. “Zana’s statements give hope [about a solution],” says Sazak.

Commenting on the BDP’s reaction to Zana’s remarks, Star’s Sedat Laçiner says this attitude of the BDP is not something new as whoever proceeds toward a solution is hit by the PKK or its representatives in politics either with bullets or words -- even if this person is Öcalan. He thinks that this is the reason for the one-year-long silence of Öcalan. “When Öcalan had significant progress in his talks with state representatives [for a solution], and ordered the temporary silencing of weapons, the PKK sabotaged this progress last year. Statements made on behalf of the PKK claimed that the state is keeping Öcalan busy for nothing and deceiving him. With its attacks, the PKK left Öcalan out of the solution process and treated him as a man deceived by the state,” says Laçiner.

Sabah’s Sevilay Yükselir called Zana’s husband, Mehdi, 75, who lives in exile in Sweden, to ask about the statements of his wife and the reactions against her, and quotes him as saying: “It is very natural [for some BDP deputies] to oppose Leyla because the people who reacted so negatively to her are very young. When one is young, one is very vicious. If Leyla had been their age, she would have had a similar reaction. When one gets mature, one begins to look at life, problems from a different angle. Her sufferings matured Leyla and she did what befitted her.”