Goodbye "Returning Home..." Hello "Back To The Beginning..."

BY MUSTAFA BALBAY
CUMHURIYET- Besides Cyprus, there are also important developments in Iraq concerning Turkey. The deadline of the repentance law was February 6. The main goal of the law was to remove the members of the terrorist organization from northern Iraq, make them come to Turkey and cause the organization to collapse. The United States was one of the countries pressuring for the repentance law. The US has even called Ankara and expressed its satisfaction when the law was passed by the Parliament. The law would enable US to press from south and Turkey would open its doors from north and the terrorist organization would be ‘eliminated’ as the Americans say. The figures display that this didn’t happen. The result is this: about 700 Hezbollah militants and 650 PKK/KADEK militants enjoyed an amnesty or a reduction in punishment. These figures are actually not much important. Consequently, the goal could not be reached. Similar laws were also passed in 1985, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1995. The seventh law has also ended now. At the Prime Minister’s visit to the US, there were reports that the extension of this law was discussed but nothing came out.
If we look at today ant to the future, the terrorist organizations activities in Iraq are going on. We also see that the promises that the US gave don’t have any influence. The number of the terrorists in northern Iraq is about 4500. At least half of them went to the region in the year 2000. In other words more than half of the people in the terrorist camps didn’t engage in any terrorist activities. This means that the organization is growing instead of shrinking. The critical question is this: Will the US go for eliminating the organization? It sometimes goes but for meetings. There was some news on northern Iraq during Prime Minister’s visit to the US: The offices of a subsidiary organization of the terrorist organization were raided and closed down. The Turkish delegation visiting America linked this to the visit. Let’s first summarize the situation: When the US could not raid the bases of the terrorist organization; it raided the parties’ offices which were formed with its permission. There comes another report: The party in question makes a congress in Baghdad on January 28-29 (during Prime Minister’s visit to the US). The US sends such messages to Ankara: The organization’s activities will be prevented this summer. It may also happen in spring. Goodbye returning home. Hello back to the beginning.