What An Amnesty Would Bring

BY FIKRET BILA
MILLIYET- Main opponent Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal yesterday visited Milliyet's Ankara bureau. We spoke with Baykal along with CHP General Secretary Onder Say, and deputy group chairs Kemal Kilicdaroglu and Hakki Suha Okay, and Baykal had preparations for dealing with the terrorist PKK on his mind.

`The prime minister is giving certain signals,' said Baykal. `He's giving messages that arrangements will be made to bring down PKK members from the mountains. It's as if they're preparing for an amnesty law or de facto amnesty. But these preparations are being done behind closed doors. If an amnesty law or de facto amnesty is passed, this will have dire consequences. Those who support this would all be in the same boat. Why would this be done? What would be asked in return? The answers to these questions are still unclear. At a time when the entire world believes Turkey justified in its fight against terrorism, granting an amnesty would be a grave mistake."

Speaking about remarks made by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Cabinet ministers on the issue, Baykal said, "Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek and Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin say there will definitely be no amnesty and that any special arrangement is out of the question. But Erdogan says just the opposite. He talks about preparations and an arrangement. He says that it would be more effective than the old `return to home' arrangement which actually led terrorists back to the mountains. There is a huge contradiction between Erdogan and his Cabinet ministers. Erdogan is involved in secret preparations, and even the Cabinet ministers have no information about it, or someone is lying.'

Saying that an arrangement based only on the ruling party's majority would be wrong, Baykal said, `The fight against terrorism is a national problem. This issue should be approached in a way that is above the parties. One shouldn't say, "I have the majority and so I'll do it." For arrangements in such areas, a national consensus should be reached and the state's national policy should be established. So the government should hear the views of opposition parties too. It should bring the issue to Parliament and seek a consensus among all the parties.'

Baykal said that he got the impression from Erdogan that some deal will be reached with the PKK and that contact had been made, adding, `The prime minister's statements reflect efforts to sway or contact the terrorist group. We've seen this before. Turkey passed `return to home' laws and arrangements to release convicted terrorist head Abdullah Ocalan were even made. These were blocked by the CHP. We know these methods. The PKK hasn't given up its politicization project, and it's using terrorism to reach its goal. Amnesty would only encourage the terrorist PKK and discourage our security forces, who risk their lives to fight terror. There would be no other result.