Turkey’s Kurdish Peace Process On a Knife’s Edge

Is Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bold Kurdish opening aimed at ending nearly three decades of internal conflict coming to a close? The question has been weighing ever more heavily since June 28 when soldiers opened fire on a group of Kurdish demonstrators in the township of Lice in southeastern province of Diyarbakir. At least one person died and several others were wounded after the soldiers allegedly shot at the crowd as they began to flee.

The incident has sparked widespread fury among the Kurds and a flurry of condemnations from their leaders. “The state has shown that it won’t be honoring its promises (to the Kurds,)” charged Sirri Sureyya Onder, a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). The Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK), a sister organization of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said in a statement. “The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, with its increasing attacks, is espousing a stand that creates doubt and distrust.”

The unrest in Lice began when about 200 people, including women and children, marched on a gendarmerie post that was under construction in the village of Kayacik, demanding that it be instantly dismantled. Government officials insisted that the incident was orchestrated by local drug barons, who fear their business will be undermined by its peace initiative.  And the Diyarbakir governorate claimed in a statement that the villagers had attacked the gendarmerie post with sticks, stones and Molotov cocktails. 

Tahir Elci, the chairman of Diyarbakir’s Bar Association, dismissed the villagers’ alleged drug links as “pure fantasy.” “While the crowd may well have engaged in “unruly behavior,” forensic reports proved that “security fires opened fire not to disperse but to kill,” Elci told Al-Monitor. “All of this is shaking people’s trust in the peace process,” he concluded.