SOUTHEAST ISSUE AND PRESCRIBED REMEDIES
                       (By Prof. Dr. Ahmed AKGÜNDÜZ)

One of the most crucial issues of Turkey today is those incidents taking place in the Southeast, the diagnosis and treatment whereof poses a vital importance to the Turkish Republic; and the said diagnosis ought to be fulfilled accurately so that the disease could be treated properly.

As a matter of fact, the Southeast Region remained under the sovereignty of the Ottoman State, a Musim state, for centuries. In esse, all the people in the east have ever been obedient to those Muslim states founded by Muslim Turks with whom they have governed the state together for 1000 years. However, today - despite of all the measures - some of the region’s people have been under the influence of some separatists, who are the foes of both Islam and the Turkish Republic. Then we should put a question: What things have changed in the Southeast Region bringing about the diseases we are today encountered with? Which physical and spiritual bonds were these two peoples attached with that they lived for many a century in unison and solidarity? Which of those bonds broke that this dissension has come up? Our ancestors defended these soils together for many centuries for the sake of “I‘la al-Qalimutullah” (Disseminating the Word of Allah) and rescued them from the invasion of enemies; they participated in many jihads (holy wars) shoulder to shoulder in Çanakkale (Dardanelle), Caucasia and Yemen and fell martyrs as the owners of the State.

So what things have changed that today’s diseases have appeared?

How did the Ottoman State treat the people of this region that they remained under its sovereignty for almost 350 years (1514-1878) and obeyed it in extreme peace, except for the minor rebellions in recent years, and who fought for communicating the Word of Allah both in peace and at war as the volunteer troopers of the Ottoman State, that it managed to ensure that quality of the region? Why did they become subject to the Ottoman State without war? How did the region’s people obey the Ottoman State for almost 350 years without any insurgency although they inflicted fifty kinds of riots in the Qaramanid State, which was also both Muslim and Turkish? In our opinion, in the solution to the problems of Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia lie the replies to the afore-said and similar questions.

In this report, which has been prepared as regards to the solution of the Problem of Southeast Region, the mentioned problem has been studied in its historical development and real prescriptions are offered for definite solution, and the positive and negative aspects of nationalism, the bleeding wound of the Problem of Southeast Region, have been analyzed.

(2nd edition with addenda, 168 pages)