AL-HASAKAH, Syria — Turkey has embarked on a new initiative to end the 40-year conflict between the Turkish armed forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The first evidence of an overture came when Devlet Bahceli, leader of the far-right Nationalist Action Party, called on the PKK’s imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, to come to the Turkish parliament and order his men to end the conflict. Today, Bahceli said the largest pro-Kurdish party, DEM, should hold talks with Ocalan. Bahceli is allied with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has endorsed his calls. It is unimaginable that the pair is not acting in concert with each other.

There are several reasons propelling Erdogan to reach out to the Kurds. The first has to do with his own future. Without Kurdish support, he cannot easily amend the constitution in order to run for a third term in office, which is forbidden in its current form. Second, Turkey is increasingly concerned that US forces may pull out of Syria before Ankara can strike a deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The latter has so far spurned Erdogan’s calls to make peace and join forces against the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria, which Turkey says takes its orders from the PKK.

The last round of peace talks between Turkey and Ocalan collapsed in 2015 because the Kurds refused to back Erdogan’s plans for the all-powerful executive presidency, which he nonetheless managed to establish. At the same time, they also rejected Turkey’s demands that they shelve their plans for autonomy and join the Syrian rebels bent on overthrowing Assad.

Nine years on, Erdogan is once again beholden to Kurds on both sides of the border. But his strategy is different. It is a mix of strong arm tactics — escalating aggression against the Syrian Kurds and the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan, and ousting Kurdish mayors while touting Ocalan as the key to peace.

Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, signaled that there was renewed communication between Ankara and the Syrian Kurds when he told the Turkish parliament last week that “the Kurds in Syria know what their homework for Turkey is.” Fidan added that “all the PKK cadres that went there from Iraq and Iran need to be sent back.”

Al-Monitor sat down with Ilham Ahmed, the de facto foreign minister of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria, to discuss these developments. Ahmed was a key interlocutor with Ankara in the last round of talks and speaks fluent Turkish. 

The following is the full text of the interview that was lightly edited for clarity.

Al-Monitor:  The attitude of the Turkish government regarding the Kurdish file has changed dramatically, at least in terms of the rhetoric, since we last met in April. The nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli invited Ocalan to call on his men to end the war against Turkey before the Turkish parliament. President Erdogan has supported his call, albeit without getting into any specifics. Ocalan was allowed to convey a message through his nephew after a very long pause. How do you view this new initiative? And there is, of course, the election victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections. 

Ahmed:  The developments in Turkey are a very big deal for us. Allowing leader Ocalan to meet with his nephew Omer Ocalan was certainly a significant and welcome development. And what leader Ocalan said, that if he were granted the appropriate conditions, he possesses the ability to transition the current situation from a military process to a political one that could lead to peace, was extremely positive and of critical importance. 

At the same time, Bahceli’s statement also had a positive impact, though it did also draw negative reactions from certain quarters of the opposition and public opinion. The key issue now is how these words are implemented in practice. If they are carried forward, this could lead to an end to the unacceptable isolation of leader Ocalan and have positive consequences for north and east Syria as well. 

We bless this initiative, and we are cautiously optimistic. There is an attempt to start something from somewhere.