The AKP government’s approach to Gezi Park actions that upended established political perceptions also significantly increased doubts about whether it can take the solution of the Kurdish issue to its conclusion. Blissfully, the fears of the collapse of the process did not materialize. The government opted to treat the Gezi resistance and Kurdish issue as two separate processes. At least that is how it seems at the moment.

We have to set this out from the outset: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan —  who in addition to his provocative and divisive style of dealing with Gezi events, also endangered the Kurdish process with his approach of legitimizing violence — doesn’t have the luxury of suspending negotiations with the PKK. This is why it serves no purpose to discuss Erdogan’s sincerity and intention vis-à-vis the process.

This is a process that compelled Erdogan to give up his plan to eradicate the PKK by ousting the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) from the parliament and imprisoning thousands of Kurds with the KCK (Union of Kurdish Communities) cases. He had to search for peace. It wasn’t really a choice but an outcome of internal pressures and Syrian developments. The PKK’s attempts to dominate regions, its threats to transfer the clashes to cities and mass hunger strikes in prisons are what prompted Erdogan to search for peace. Such compulsive reasons might yet well return. Wavering now could be expensive for Turkey. To take a step back will be suicidal for the AKP.

The Turk who understands the Kurd