What is happening in the city of Van?

However, there are signs in Turkey that justify the pessimists who say whatever Turkey does, it cannot belong to Europe.

Van is an eastern Anatolian city, largely populated by Kurds who make up various tribes. The Kurdish population is very uneducated — for them belonging to a tribe is much more important than belonging to a state. They obey the rules of the tribe much more enthusiastically than they obey the rules of the state. The area is quite poor in terms of natural resources and the quality of the soil is very poor for fertile farming. There is barely any industry there.

The only employers in the Kurdish populated east and southeast Anatolia are the state and the tribal leaders. These leaders run many businesses, but some of them prefer the easy way to make money — smuggling heroin!

Allegedly, those tribe leaders back the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terror campaign as it is easier for them to run their businesses in an uncontrolled environment.

Again, allegedly, Mustafa Bayram is one of the tribe leaders involved in heroin smuggling as the family business. He was been in Parliament for a while, with the support of the-then leader of the Motherland Party (ANAP), Mesut Yilmaz, before he transferred himself to Necmettin Erbakan’s then-Refah Party.

His son was arrested in possession of a large quantity of heroin by the security forces a while ago, but his father raided the police station with his tribesmen and rescued both his son and the seized heroin — since then the security forces have been unable to find either the son or the heroin.

The government is investigating this case to find out answers to questions — like who informed the father that the son was in custody. The son was supposedly captured under secrecy! We are all also awaiting the son and the heroin to be found.

The opposition party — the Republican People’s Party (CHP) — quite rightly declared that it is not satisfied with the government’s investigation because many bureaucrats in Van, who are under suspicion of closing their eyes and even assisting in the raid, are all people appointed by the present government.

The other day another tribal leader by the name Mikail Ilcin made a press statement that openly threatened CHP leader Deniz Baykal for running a separate and independent investigation. Mikail Ilcin was also once in Parliament, and then in the party he now threatens. Currently he is not in Parliament, but still works for the government.

He said the CHP may find that all the tribes will act against the CHP, openly stating, "If I were in the city, I would never allow the CHP investigation group to enter Van."

Now I am confused — we had the "adjusted laws and rules" long before the birth of the Copenhagen criteria that says heroin smuggling is illegal and that threatening people is a crime.

So do we belong to the EU because we already have the relevant laws; or are those who say, "it is not the law, but sociological structure that demonstrates who belongs to which civilization," right?

Postscript: As I do each summer, I will not be writing my column for a while. I will resume writing on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2004.