The Kurdsare the world’s largest stateless ethnic group, with an estimated 25 to 30 million people living as minorities across Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Fragmentation and complex regional interests have always made Kurdish issues highly sensitive in the Middle East. But a possible turning point has emerged.
After over four decades of waging an armed anti-capitalist struggle for Kurdish self-determination against Turkey’s government, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has declared an end to the conflict and initiated a disarmament process. On Friday, 30 PKK fighters ceremonially laid down and destroyed their weapons in Dukan, in the Sulaymaniyah Governate of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Turkey’s government has called the PKK’s disarmament an opportunity for a peaceful future and promised to work toward stability and reconciliation. In February, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999, called on adherents to end the separatist insurgency.
That is just the first step toward achieving a sustainable peace in the long-deadlocked conflict.
Demands and obstacles
In a statement released on Thursday, the PKK emphasized that the success of the peace process will depend largely on concessions by Turkey’s government. The statement called the symbolic act a clear sign of the PKK’s desire for peace. However, the complete disarmament and dissolution of the PKK will require political, legal and social steps by Turkey’s government, the statement said.
The PKK is demanding Ocalan’s release as part of the process. The group has also called for changes to Turkey’s penal code that would enable the release of thousands of other Kurdish political prisoners, particularly elderly and the sick people. The PKK also seeks amnesty for fighters who hand in their weapons and opportunities for them to transition into legal politics.
Turkey’s government has yet to take any concrete steps of its own. Officials are waiting to determine whether the organization’s disbandment is in earnest. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who leads the religious-conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP), and his ally, Devlet Bahceli, leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), will also need to secure the support of their supporters and the wider population. With more than 40,000 people estimated to have been killed in the conflict since 1984 — the vast majority of them Kurdish civilians killed by forces aligned with Turkey’s government — the latter could prove immensely challenging.
Vahap Coskun, director of the Diyarbakir Institute for Political and Social Research, said the cautious rapprochement was normal. In difficult peace processes, mutual trust usually only develops over time as the parties come together, he said. But the first hurdle, the start to laying down arms, has now been overcome, he added.
‘Democratic social process’
Negotiations with an organization that has been designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU, US and their allies will be extraordinarily difficult for the government, which has long painted the PKK as the chief enemy of the state. Erdogan said Ankara would take no further steps before the PKK dismantled all of its structures.
According to the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, which advocates for Kurds and other minorities in Turkey, a commission will be established in the national legislature in July to create proposals for “peace and a democratic social process” beginning in October. The commission will address the future of Ocalan and the PKK’s estimated 2,500 to 5,000 fighters. The true size of the organization’s arsenal remains unknown.
Coskun said he expected the PKK to emerge from the mountains in groups of 40 to 50 fighters over the next few months to surrender their weapons. Media close to the government report that handover locations will be defined and monitored jointly by Iraq’s central government and the administration of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. The weapons are to be registered and destroyed to prevent them from ending up with other Kurdish groups. The regional Kurdistan administration in Iraq supports the rapprochement between Turkey’s government and the PKK.
Although the PKK has agreed to this plan, it may not wish to relinquish control so quickly. Some fighters could join organizations such as the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) in Iran or the Kurdish militias of the People’s Defense Units (YPG) in Syria. Turkey’s government regards the YPG as the Syrian arm of the PKK and has in recent years launched cross-border attacks on the group.
A productive process
Coskun is optimistic about the peace process, saying Turkey’s government and the PKK have learned from previous, unsuccessful attempts. Those negotiations were often protracted, but this time the government wants to move forward quickly. Work on a political solution is set to begin in October, when Turkey’s parliament convenes after the summer break.
“This will require changes to the Turkish penal code, in particular the anti-terror laws and the law on enforcement,” Coskun said.
Demands by the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party for more rights for Kurds and the recognition of the Kurdish identity would also require a change to the Turkish constitution, Coskun added.
Coskun said the peace process could help improve the Turkish government’s relations with Kurds in Iraq and Syria, as well. Though Turkey generally has a good relationship with Kurds in Iraq, the PKK’s activities in the Kurdistan has often strained ties between the governments. Turkey has also always seen the Kurdish self-administration in northern Syria as a major threat because of its close ties with the PKK.
If Turkey’s government can resolve its domestic and cross-border conflict with Kurds, Coskun said, its relations with Middle Eastern countries could improve.
On Saturday, Erdogan praised the beginning of the peace process, calling it the end of a “painful chapter” in Turkish history that had been characterized by the “scourge of terrorism.”
“Today the doors of a great Turkey, a strong Turkey, a Turkish century have been opened wide,” Erodgan said.
This article was originally written in German.
