According to Kurdistan Press, Isik Kansu, a columnist for Cumhuriyet newspaper and a journalist close to the Turkish opposition, criticized the government’s policies in the “Peace and Democratic Society” process and the proposed “Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Integration” (the same peace framework law).Kansu began his note with the phrase “an operation almost every morning,” and wrote that every day a mayor, journalist, artist, or citizen who expressed dissatisfaction with government policies is arrested from his home and faces judicial investigation or prison sentence.

Referring to the arrest of more than 30 opposition mayors, the imprisonment of dozens of bureaucrats and journalists, and the preparation of numerous files for the leader of the opposition’s parent party (the Republican People’s Party), he wrote: “Anyone whose voice is heard is listened to and thrown in prison. The country has become an open prison.”

The Framework Law is a Hidden Amnesty

Kansu went on to describe the proposed “Framework Law” as a plan whose content is kept hidden even from citizens and their elected representatives and is being promoted as a fait accompli.Repeating the official view of the nationalist movements opposed to the peace process, he held the PKK responsible for the deaths of nearly 50,000 Turkish citizens and claimed that under the proposed regulations, members of the organization would be “set free as if nothing had happened.”

Kansu described the regulations on the suspension of investigations, trials and executions as “hidden amnesty clauses.”

Criticism of Öcalan’s role in the process

The Cumhuriyet columnist also criticized the role of Abdullah Öcalan in the ongoing peace process, writing, “Öcalan has been placed at the center of developments as if he were the representative and supporter of a section of society and a key player in determining the future course of Turkey.”

Kansu claimed that Öcalan’s opinion and approval were sought for the drafting of the law and that he would be allowed to participate in decisions related to the country’s future.He also referred to Öcalan’s alleged statement about advancing “a democratization process at least as important as the establishment of a republic,” and wrote that Öcalan sees himself as the leader of such a phase.

The goal is to consolidate Erdogan’s power

Kansu assessed the ongoing peace process not as a step towards democratizing Turkey, but as an attempt to establish a new political regime. He claimed that “currents that have been in the ranks of the ‘counter-revolution in Turkey’ since the founding of the republic are now working together to create an ethnic, sectarian, and communal system.”

Referring to Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Ankara and the country’s special representative for Syria, the journalist said: “The model that America supports for the region is a kind of ‘fully dependent constitutional monarchy,’ which he sees as a ghost from the Middle Ages.”According to Kansu, the most important goal of this process is to consolidate and continue the power of the “Presidential Palace” and strengthen the position of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He also claimed that the Republican People’s Party, which is known in Turkey’s official history as the founding party of the republic, has been weakened and fragmented by ethnic, sectarian and communal currents.

Society is resisting the new games of the Syrians

Kansu wrote that the majority of Turkish society, despite being trapped in poverty, is aware of the political developments and is resisting what he called the “new games of the Syrians” and the attempt to take away the national will.

He considered the expansion of arrests and the filling of prisons to be the result of this resistance, writing: “The empire of fear descends like a black cloud over our beautiful homeland.”

Kansu then considered Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s words that “the republic will be crowned with democracy” to be contrary to the current conditions.He described Kılıçdaroğlu as someone through whom Erdogan intends to remove the CHP from its historical position and weaken it.

Kansu went on to write that the people know who the Justice and Development Party, the Nationalist Movement Party, the PKK, the Hüseyin Party and the movements that support the legal annulment of the current CHP leadership are seeking to crown by “trampling on democracy and ending the 1923 Republic.”

 “They will not win against the people,” he wrote.