Turkish-Kurdish-Arab brotherhood awakening in the Casene Cave, and Erdoğan's address

The ceremony of burning weapons by PKK militants, held in Sulaymaniyah on Friday in line with the roadmap of the process, took place as a superbly organized event whose symbolic meanings had been worked out and designed with great delicacy. In keeping with the spirit of the process, every unnecessary move that might disturb the relevant parties, actors and stakeholders was carefully avoided; thus the sensitivities displayed, taken together, wrote out, finely and delicately, the contents of a very subtle message. Everyone who contributed to organizing the event deserves congratulation, especially the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), which has run the process with great meticulousness from the very beginning, the regional administration, and the DEM Party officials.

In the resolution process, the process had been formally sabotaged by the Habur show, which turned into a victory parade for the organization. Again in the resolution process, the reasonable period of inaction and non-operation granted under the understanding reached for burying the weapons and leaving for abroad was thoroughly spoiled by the organization stalling while recruiting even more men, even women and children, to the mountains, and by its exercises in de facto autonomy, a fait accompli in the region, as though recognized by the state as well. The lessons drawn from the past have a significant share in the process up to this moment, which continues with the burning of weapons in Sulaymaniyah.

The place chosen for the weapons-burning ceremony is itself important. The choice of Casene Cave, which Kurdish Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji, an Ottoman subject who rebelled against the British in the years when Turkey was under British occupation, used as a refuge and as a headquarters for his important activities, is an important occasion for sending messages to many quarters at once.

The first message is to the imperial-Zionist powers that have made plans on the PKK today and want to use it against Turkey: it says that from now on the historic unity of Kurds and Turks, and even of Arabs, is being re-established.

The second, of course, is addressed again to the Turkish people: an important cave metaphor chosen to recall the historical roots of the brotherhood with the Kurds, of an unbreakable unity. Caves describe an entity that revives after a sleep, that continues from where it left off, that even rises again by renewing its energy, its spirit, its cause. Like the People of the Cave, it is an existence, a unity and a brotherhood that is remembered again at the end of the century that has passed over it and all the calamities lived through in the meantime.

How high the symbolic value of Casene Cave is. A hundred years ago this cave was precisely harboring the discourses of jihad in the name of Turkish-Kurdish-Arab unity, and it was the last fortress of the struggle against imperialism waged on behalf of the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire was not destroyed on the battlefield; it was destroyed much later, when that bond of brotherhood was dissolved through intrigues.

WHAT THE PRESIDENT HAD TO SAY ON THIS HISTORIC EVENT WAS OF COURSE VERY IMPORTANT

The speech he gave at the customary annual (for some time now semiannual) consultation meeting at Kızılcahamam was a very powerful expression of such an event.

Although he recounted the history of 47 years of terror, he pointed to the very 100-year dimensions of the event. He placed the matter, beyond having solved an incident that has truly made Turkey waste 47 years, in the context of an awakening of the Turkish-Arab-Kurdish brotherhood and of national togetherness that had lain asleep for a century.

Although many people may ask where the Arabs came from, Erdoğan spoke by opening up the horizon that Turkey now stands before. First of all, Turkey has an Arab population of no less than 4-5 percent. This population has never had any problem with being Turkish, with being an inseparable part of Turkey, and has never caused any trouble. In return, it suffers serious grievance and discomfort from the anti-Arab rhetoric that is used recklessly from time to time. Let us pass over that. This is a secondary matter of implication in Erdoğan's speech.

What is really important is the new horizon that has opened before Turkey with its embrace of the cause of Gaza and Palestine, particularly in Syria. The horizon that gives it voice and influence in the Arab world. This voice and influence is a matter of the rights and responsibilities of Turkey, of accounts left unclosed a hundred years ago, but cast aside superficially and by fait accompli. The fait accompli and irresponsibility that later wrapped the Kurdish problem around our heads were also a part of this. Relations with the Kurds are no longer a problem. The Kurds are not a problem; on the contrary they are a reason for Turkey's greatness, its historical and geographical depth, just like the Arabs.

That is why in his speech Erdoğan explained that the victory of Manzikert, the conquest of Jerusalem, the conquest of Istanbul, the defense of Çanakkale and the War of Independence were the common wars and common victories of Turks, Kurds, Arabs and many other Muslim peoples. After saying that Turks, Kurds and Arabs conquered Jerusalem under the command of Saladin, he said that Damascus, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Mosul, Kirkuk, Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, Aleppo, Hatay, Istanbul and Ankara are all our common cities, and he uttered the decisive sentences:

"When we, that is Turks, Kurds, Arabs, formed an alliance, the wind of our horses spread cool breezes from the China Sea to the Adriatic. Remember, peace spread over the geography from the rearing of our horses. The clash of swords brought peace to this region... Together we engraved the line of La ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah on the earth, on the sky, in each other's hearts... When we formed an alliance, no one could compete with us in our civilization, our art, our knowledge, our level of prosperity. If Turk, Kurd, Arab are together, are one, are side by side, then there is Turk, there is Kurd, there is Arab. When they separate, divide, drift apart, then there is defeat, there is rout, there is sorrow. The Mongol armies mercilessly destroyed the lands of Islam because Turk, Kurd, Arab had split. The Crusaders attacked the lands of Islam because Turk, Kurd, Arab had been torn from one another. We lost the First World War, borders were drawn between us, walls were built. We lost Jerusalem, because there was discord. Whenever we separated we lost, we were defeated. Whenever we formed an alliance we set the course of history.

Today in Gaza, in Palestine, the cruelest, most savage, most barbaric genocide in history is being carried out. Why? Because Turk, Kurd, Arab cannot come together and form an alliance as they did throughout history."

I have quoted at length because the addressees of these words are not only the Turks and Kurds in Turkey but all the peoples of the region, the Arab countries in particular. It is very important that Erdoğan drew from the separation between Turks and Kurds a lesson of responsibility for the tragic situation in Gaza. Of course, there are lessons to be drawn from this speech as much by the grandchildren of Saladin as by the whole Islamic world.

Although Erdoğan's speech carried an important message, it had many more dimensions. Particularly important is the mention of "a sector, an ecosystem" that 47 years of terror produced together with its "opponents," that is, with those who appear to be against terror. It explained the most important reason for the continuation of terror up to now. This is a testimony from someone who for 23 years has suffered in the first degree from all the dimensions and tricks of this ecosystem, but it is also a warning. There is no doubt that, because their schemes and their doors of political gain are closing, they will do everything they can to undermine the process, as before, so now. But this time facing them is a self-confidence based on justified, real grounds.

As much as the process itself is important, the President's speech should be read carefully as an important reference text and kept constantly in view.