Spring has come to Şırnak, to Eruh, to my homeland

"I am trying to understand those who oppose the resolution process, and I cannot. Do they want our children, their own children, to keep dying? If so, I truly cannot comprehend it. Let someone explain it to me. Do these people hope not to appear before God? How will they answer to God?"

These words of an elderly gentleman from among the people, addressed to the AK Parti deputies and provincial chairs who had come to meet the people of the region about the resolution process in Silopi, give voice to the thoughts of the great majority of the people in the region. Moreover, most of these people are not those who look warmly on the PKK, or even on the BDP.

With the start of the activities of each group of wise persons in their regions, very beautiful and diverse images of public support for the process began to arrive. The fact that these activities coincide with the days of spring, and the metaphors or associations established between them and spring, also bring discursive advantages in favour of the process. With spring, nature greening comes to the fore, reminds us of the possibility of resurrection, and also blocks, to a degree, the way of ill-omened pessimistic discourse.

At the weekend I too found myself in the midst of the meeting gatherings that AK Parti deputies and provincial chairs, headed by AK Parti MKYK member and Istanbul deputy Nurettin Nebati, held in Şırnak and its districts. I took the invitation of Siirt deputy Osman Ören as an opportunity to observe the meetings on the spot and to see the reflections of the resolution process. The reflections of the initiatives of Ören and the other deputies of the region, who last week also hosted 45 Western deputies in the region, were interesting enough in themselves.

After the press conference the group that met in Cizre held there, the delegation split into four to disperse to the districts. The politicians who dispersed to İdil, Uludere, Cizre and Silopi distributed the carnations they had brought on the occasion of Kutlu Doğum to the tradesmen they visited, and the interest they received from the people was worth seeing.

Besides the Silopi group that I personally accompanied and witnessed, I learned that the others were received in the same way. In short, the resolution is being met in the region with great acceptance, hope and excitement. It is wanted that the process be carried to its end and not be interrupted. No one has any worry or expectation that this process will separate this region further from the rest of Turkey or weaken relations. On the contrary, a feeling of being more integrated with the country with this process prevails in everyone.

It may be said that the tradesmen, who make up the greater part of the weight of the visits, always prefer stability and peace more. That is why the tradesmen, almost all of whom are Kurds, do not even have a concern about observing a balance between the silencing of the guns and a political solution. Everyone is united in saying that their only concern is the complete putting out of action of the weapons without condition, and that whoever spoils the atmosphere achieved today will have taken on a great burden of sin.

Everyone has tasted the normalisation process experienced since the process began. The region with the highest number of young people in Turkey is also the region with the highest unemployment rate. The investments that have begun to flow rapidly into the region in the atmosphere of the resolution process make people lament more over the time lost. An electric-powered bus assembly plant they will set up with the Chinese investors whom Osman Ören's aides and Siirt investors, with their extraordinary economic diplomacy, hosted over the past week was among the subjects talked about. The plant will initially employ 1,000 people and sell to the Middle Eastern market. The same investors have already started negotiations for factories producing solar energy panels and wind energy turbines.

While we were in Şırnak we also wanted to visit the BDP and the new party expected to be influential in the region, HÜDA-PAR. We could not find anyone at HÜDA-PAR since all its staff were in another province on account of the Kutlu Doğum events, but our BDP visit took place with interesting and certainly productive impressions.

I can say this much. At the BDP provincial building the concerns about the process exist to a degree for which we saw no counterpart among the people. In a sense, the impressions we obtained in our meetings with the BDP organisation and with different segments of the people are very different from one another. The BDP members of Şırnak said that the process had gained them nothing, that there was no change in the state's attitude, that Şırnak was almost still living under a blockade and that the people could not even go on a picnic.

We said this too is a perception and recorded it as well. But on the road from Şırnak to Eruh we saw hundreds of people who had parked their vehicles to picnic as if enjoying the taste of spring. This became another perception based on witnessing.