Time running out for Turkey-PKK peace process
The AKP government’s stalling of required steps for peace and a political solution with the Kurds increases the likelihood of controlled violence.
“The peace and solution” process that was initiated in the last months of 2012 as a result of the AKP government’s resumption of dialogue with the Kurdish movements and its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, has been inert for quite a while.
The political framework of the process still exists and the non-hostility status is continuing. But it is not possible to speak of the existence of the dynamism that is needed to make the process robust and resilient to the stresses of time, external circumstances and pressures.
Gulten Kisanak, co-chairwoman of the legal Kurdish party BDP, the Peace and Democracy Party represented in Turkey’s parliament, on Oct. 25 told a group of journalists, including me, that there is a "clog” blocking the solution, and that the government is responsible.
Kisanak said of the clog, which doesn’t mean the end of the process: "We are talking of a process that doesn’t mean a full solution, that doesn’t satisfy expectations and that is taut but not ruptured. The government wants to attribute the responsibility for the crisis to the Kurdish side and is not willing to accept that it is not taking the steps it has to."
