Wise people's contribution to peace process

The Wise People Commission consists of 63 people divided into nine-person sub-groups that are serving in seven different regions of the country. As to its composition, there are people of diverse worldviews, from different professions and interest groups. There are movie actors, famous singers, respected intellectuals, writers, human rights activists and others. If you had asked me to set up a consultative council for the settlement of the Kurdish questions, most of these people would be on my personal list, too. Some of them are people I have worked with in the past. They are people in whose wisdom I have faith. When you look at it from this viewpoint, you feel a bit more hopeful for a solution of the Kurdish issue. But once you start to look at the details, questions emerge. In the recent Dolmabahe Palace meeting with the commission, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan said the wise people themselves would determine their methods of work. But the pict ure that has emerged does not conform to Erdoan's remarks about allowing the commission a wide space in which to operate. For example, not only were the names of the wise people announced in advance by the Prime Ministry, but so were many details, such as who would be working in which region of the country and who will be the chairperson, co-chair and secretary of each regional group. If these groups are to have an autonomous structure, such a detailed division of labor done in advance by the prime minister personally constitutes an intervention in the democratic autonomy of the commission. These 63 people could have decided for themselves who will serve in what region and how they will divide their work. The prime minister, who is planning to meet regularly with group chairpersons, obviously didn't want to leave it to chance who these people might be. We also note that there are people on the commission who have in the past harshly criticized the prime minister and the government on many issues. From that angle, the Wise People Commission represents an olive branch extended by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to Turkey's liberal democrat intellectuals who had supported the party for a while but with whom they started to clash because of recent authoritarian practices. To answer why there was a need for such a commission, one has to understand the atmosphere in Turkey since the onset of debate on the peace process. On this issue, the AKP can't get the support of any other political party except the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). Turkish nationalists and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) that represents them are opposing the peace process with increasingly tough rhetoric. Looked at from this perspective, we can predict that the wise people will help lighten this popular anger and also serve as a shield of sorts by diverting some of that anger onto themselves. The AKP has already said that the wise people will explain the peace process to the people. Do the wise people then know the government's roadmap for peace? Wise people I spoke to say they haven't been briefed about the roadmap for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to give up its arms or the expected democratization moves within the framework of the Kurdish issue. At the Dolmabahe meeting, the regional groups were asked to go to people, take their pulse and put their impressions in a report to be delivered to the prime minister in a few months. For the time being, wise people are traveling across the country and talking to people wherever they hold meetings. As far as we can learn, sometimes they have had angry reactions, sometimes they received a warmer welcome than they had expected in regions in which nationalists have a strong hold. Because of their contacts, not only are they communicating with local people directly, but their words and images are also on all media outlets across the country. They are sending warm messages to every corner of Turkey. I really hope their role of being the messengers of hope will continue with such ease and peace. But I also hope that these people will broaden the scope of the narrowly defined mandate of their commission. And thus, their commission will turn into a consultancy body for the government in the peace process for the resolution of the Kurdish question. As I have said earlier in this column, I have the feeling that the government does not have a detailed roadmap for the peace process and I hope this commission will somehow also contribute to the design of that roadmap Turkey will follow to solve the Kurdish question. That way we would benefit from their real talents, instead of using them as just a PR group.