A New Hope for Turkish-Kurdish Peace?

By Julian Fischer-Lhamon 

Conflict between Turks and Kurds has characterized the northern tip of the Middle East (specifically southeastern Türkiye, northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, and western Iran) for a century. However, it would be a mistake to assume that it is unyielding or permanent. In 2009 there was a wave of liberalization, since titled the “Kurdish Opening”, where many laws that banned Kurdish cultural practices or language were repealed. This led to a short uneasy peace which was destroyed by the Syrian Civil War, the growth of ISIS and the failed Turkish coup. 

Since 2015, hostilities between the Turks and Kurds have resumed and draconian measures have been reinstated such as the removal of Kurdish statues, changing the names of Kurdish street signs, the closure of Kurdish-language TV channels, and mass arrests of Kurdish leaders and journalists. After the far-right, ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) started backing Erdoğan in 2016, further waves of crackdowns followed at their behest resulting in thousands of Kurds being arrested as political prisoners, and the leftover Kurdish political party, the People’s Equality and Democracy Party, has been beaten into “the fringes of politics”. 

Therefore it was very surprising that the leader of the MHP, Devlet Bahçeli, proposed on October 22nd that the Turkish government come to terms with the Kurds; in this deal the founder of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), the armed guerilla movement which Turkish armed forces has been fighting for decades, be released from his quarter-century imprisonment if he pledged to disband the PKK. That same day a PKK attack, unrelated to the proposal, killed five and wounded a dozen, in Ankara. Despite this, Bahçeli’s proposal was endorsed by Erdoğan himself, who called it a, “historic window of opportunity”. 

Some observers deem this shift in Turkish strategy is driven by concerns over the Turkish 2028 elections, however it is more likely that it is rooted in the present-day Turkish international relations strategy which is focused on balancing between East and West. For years U.S. support for, and coordination with, Kurdish forces, specifically the People’s Protection Units (YPG) which Turkey claims to be associated with the PKK, has proven to be a nasty thorn in U.S.-Turkish relations. By removing this thorn themselves, Türkiye may be signaling to the United States that its connections to the West are more important than any total victory in the Kurdish conflict. Considering Türkiye attempts to join BRICS and its complicated relationship with Russia, this may be an important moment for the West to reciprocate and show that it is still greatly interested in Turkish partnership by helping mediate a lasting peace.