!á�� It is wrong to say identity problems have recently become so important that they have the power to 'transform and change' political regimes of today, as some intellectuals claim. European history after the 100 Years' War, the Ottoman state in the 19th century, the Holocaust and the end of colonialism are unrelated examples that prove that problems about ethnic, religious and racial identity have always been important in all times.   It is wrong to say identity problems have recently become so important that they have the power to “transform and change” the political regimes of today, as some intellectuals claim. European history after the 100 Years' War, the Ottoman state in the 19th century, the Holocaust and the end of colonialism are unrelated examples that prove that problems about ethnic, religious and racial identity have always been important, in all times.

  It was thought that recognition of the Kurdish identity would help stop Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorism. It didn't happen because the PKK insisted on independence or on a state based on two constituent nations, instead of being content with a sub-identity. Hence, we have gone back to square one.

  Blaming past discriminatory policies for the socioeconomic underdevelopment of the Southeast and for the genesis of the PKK is another mistaken assessment. Putting aside the struggle with PKK terrorism between 1984 and 1999, the Southeast region has regularly received a net budget inflow. Still, it remained underdeveloped. The sprit of defeatism and victimization strengthened the tendency to expect everything from the state.

  ETA and IRA terrorism also left the Basques and Northern Ireland, respectively, underdeveloped. Even though it was never bogged down in terrorism, the aspiration for independence sapped all constructive energy in the formerly well-developed region of Quebec in Canada. As a result, it fell behind Toronto and then Vancouver in economic terms. As long as separatism tainted with terrorism prevails in the region, the Southeast is doomed to remain underdeveloped.

  On the other hand, it is very hard to initiate dialogue with peaceful Kurds in the region in order to isolate PKK terrorism. The PKK intimidates peaceful political alternatives to its policies. The group led by Leyla Zana, together with the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP), support the PKK and as such constitute the worst example of ethno-nationalism. Prime Minister Erdo?an's recent visit to Diyarbak?r gives us the impression that the majority there is shifting to their side.

  The danger posed by authoritarian Kurdish ethno-nationalism stems from the fact that it intermingles with leftist ideology, thus becoming ethno-national socialist, in other words, fascist, while maintaining fake democratic rhetoric. This ideology produces a group psyche with a high proclivity towards violence instead of creating democratic individuals. It ignores the need for economic development and turns a blind eye to the feudal clan structures, blood feuds, “honor” killings and polygamy that is so pervasive in the region. It is obsessed with the idea of carving out a huge portion of Turkey. It cannot comprehend the terrible dangers in aiming at objectives far beyond its power.

  Developments in northern Iraq have brought this delusion back to life and led to the escalation of PKK terrorism.

  It is obvious why PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan seeks a bi-national federal solution through negotiation. Once a federal Kurdish state is delineated along ethnic borders, the dismemberment of the country will be affected according to internal boundaries, as in the case of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. They fear the area they snatch through pure terrorism would be much smaller than what they wildly imagine.

  In his interview with Radikal newspaper, Orhan Do?an from Zana's group said, “When the time comes, Öcalan will be freed.” Do?an continued: “Through armed propaganda [in other words, by killing innocent people], the PKK is trying to explain the Kurdish problem to Turkey. … There is [also] a project of the PKK to expand towards the Black Sea. … As it happened in Britain with the IRA and in Spain with the ETA, the time will come when Turkey will begin a similar process of dialogue with the PKK.”

  If these do not materialize, he threatens that “Turkey will be pushed to an ethnic conflict beyond levels ever experienced during [the last] 15 years.”

  It wasn't difficult to establish a dialogue between the Catholic IRA and Protestant Unionists in Northern Ireland, for they were both Irish and sub-state entities. In Spain, the separate regions were formed in the country after the Arabs had been expelled in the early 1500s, and the autonomy given to the Basque region is no different from the autonomy in Catalonia.

  Turkey can never establish a dialogue for a “political solution” that aims at changing the structure of the republic and cannot go beyond recognition of sub-identity and individual cultural rights for the Kurds.

  Do?an's statements openly encourage PKK terrorism. We have to fight people like him and the PKK terrorism behind them. This is a fight for survival. The republic is a nation-state, not the Ottoman state, whose constituent parts are on auction.

  The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) should not waste this, perhaps the last, opportunity to become a party of the republic.