The Kurdish issue is undoubtedly Turkey’s most complex problem, both domestically and regionally. The resumption of armed conflict in July 2015 after a two-year lull has claimed thousands of lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes.

While violence continues to rattle the country, Ankara’s political and legislative moves have grown more authoritarian by the day. Using the July 15 coup attempt as an opportunity, the government has closed down media outlets and civic groups representing the Kurdish movement and arrested top Kurdish politicians, including parliament members, on the grounds they collaborated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The security-centered approach has extended to foreign policy as well. Turkey’s determination to contain the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) — a PKK extension in Ankara’s eyes — has become so prominent and pressing as to force cross-border military interventions.

All this is a far cry from how the Justice and Development Party (AKP) had started out. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who led the party to power in November 2002, was in fact the first Turkish politician who seriously tried to resolve the Kurdish issue through reforms and other political means.