Ten years ago an organization titled the Abant Platform entered the thought and discussion life in Turkey.

Established by the Journalists and Writers Foundation of Turkey and inspired by Fethullah Gülen, the Abant Platform soon turned out to be a prominent nongovernmental organization that achieved many firsts in a short time. In discussion meetings organized by the platform, dozens of scholars and intellectuals from different camps of Turkish society were given an opportunity to express their ideas. This year's theme is the Kurdish problem. This is interesting in that this is the first time the Abant platform has focused on the Kurdish issue. The meeting to be held in Diyarbakir on March 28-29, 2008 is titled "Kurdish Problem: Collective Search for Peace and Future" and will be attended by prominent figures. When politics fails to find a solution, scholars and intellectuals step in and try to develop an answer. This may serve as an opportunity for politics to rest for some time and then look at the problem anew – and Turkey deserves a solution very much.