BY ERDAL GUVEN
RADIKAL- Each country has peculiar conditions. The dynamics of each political or ethnical struggle, whether armed or unarmed, are peculiar as well. So special conditions and dynamics should be taken into consideration in the process of creating parallelism between the future of any armed struggle in any country and that of the terrorist PKK in Turkey. The states don`t have any universal `handbook` to direct their struggle against the armed organizations. But there is a general rule: an armed organization can`t be defeated only through military methods. This rule is often brought to the agenda in Turkey as well in terms of the struggle against the PKK. But there are certain exceptions in this rule as well.
It seems the latest exceptional situation occurred in Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers surrendered themselves to the state`s organized armed force. In other words, it seems the Sri Lanka state has solved the problem of terrorism only through military methods. I`m writing carefully, because we should wait to make a definite judgment. This is a matter of process, but there is another exceptional situation which occurred recently in Peru. The Shining Path organization was established in Peru in 1970 in order to conduct an armed struggle to establish a Maoist order. The organization enjoyed its strongest era in 1980s. Its ideological devotement to this grant purpose and the cruelty of its methods turned the Shining Path into one of the most fearful movements in the world. The organization has not only administrated a considerably large area in the rural Peru, but also carried out terrorist attacks in cities and almost taken the regime as hostage.
Then Alberto Fujimori came into power in Peru in 1990. He promised to end the Shining Path. He suspended the Constitution, Parliament and the Constitutional Court with the army`s support and initiated a merciless struggle completely based on military methods against the Shining Path by paying no attention to human rights two years after he was elected the Peru leader. Abiamel Guzman, leader of the Shining Path, and nearly the entire commanding level of the organization was captured in the same year. The organization was destroyed in the following two years and nearly 6,000 Shining Road supporters surrendered and Fujimori declared his victory at the end of 1994. The organization seemed to be moving in mid 1990s, but the number of its members never surpassed a few hundred. Furthermore, the new leader Oscar Ramirez was caught in 1999 and the remaining members were captured in 2004.
Now only the name of the Shining Road exists in Peru, not itself. They are now working as a sort of guard for coca producers, but they don`t go out of the woods of the country. Their actions are limited to occasional kidnapping. So the result is the end of an armed struggle, 70,000 dead people, a marginalized organization and a country with damaged democracy. The fact that the Tamil Tigers were brought to their knees doesn`t mean that the problem was completely solved. As a matter of fact, the reasonable people in Turkey don`t argue that the Kurdish issue can be solved by discharging the PKK. But this is not our issue. The issue is about how to struggle against an armed organization.
Obviously, Sri Lankan Head of State Mahinda Rajapaske follows the road of Fujimori. It is understood that the military operation which ended with the declaration of victory last week has discharged almost all the Tamil Tigers. So the rule of `armed organizations can`t be brought to their knees through military methods` is now facing a new exception. And not only armed organizations, but also the states struggling against these organizations should think about this exception.