Peace between Turkey and the PKK

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) calls on Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to enter serious peace negotiations with the PKK: “To show that Turkey is serious about making peace with the Kurds, Erdoğan must put an end to the attacks on Kurdish areas in northern Syria and finally release PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan – who has now been in prison for more than a quarter of a century – and other leading Kurdish politicians such as Selahattin Demirtaş. They can only successfully accompany the incipient peace process and have a positive impact if they are free,” stated Dr. Kamal Sido, the STP’s Middle East correspondent, in Göttingen today. Demirtaş has been imprisoned in Turkey since 2016, although the European Court of Human Rights had ordered him to be released.

“For millions of Kurds and members of other minority groups – such as the Assyrians/Arameans/Chaldeans, Armenians, Alewis, Yazidis, and Christians – but also Turkish people who have been suffering from the clashes, there is hope for an end to the violence. We are calling on the Turkish state to use this historic chance,” Sido emphasized.

“Now, it is up to the NATO governments, especially the German Federal Government, to advocate for a peaceful solution. Due to the political and diplomatic support as well as the arms supplies to Turkey, Germany is partly responsible for the crimes of the Turkish government against the Kurds and other minorities. Therefore, the German Federal Government should urge Turkey to stop the ongoing attacks against the Kurds in order to create better conditions for an end to the violence,” Sido demanded.

Turkey is responsible for further recent attacks. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a partner organization of the STP, the Qara Kozak Bridge over the Euphrates was shelled with at least 90 grenades on Saturday. On the day of Öczalan’s public statement, Turkey carried out fighter drone attacks on positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) near Al-Shaddadah in the north-east of Syria, killing 12 people. The SDF are fighting the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) in the region.

“These actions of the Turkish state are raising fears that it will try to impede the nascent peace process – as it has done in the past. Turkey’s ongoing attacks against the Kurds could also strengthen forces within the PKK that are not exactly enthusiastic about Öcalan’s statement. Thus, Erdoğan’s hunger for power is the biggest threat to a peace process,” the human rights activist fears. “If Trump were to withdraw US troops that were sent to Syria to provide support, Erdoğan might decide to invade once again, engulfing the region with war and devastation and destroying all hopes for an end to the fighting.”

“An end to the criminalization of the Kurds through the German Federal Government could be very helpful for the peace process. If the German Federal Government truly wants to support the emerging process, it should at least determine which activity bans would need to be lifted to facilitate the dissolution of the PKK, which Turkey and its allies see as a terrorist organization,” Sido explained.

On Thursday (February 27), Abdullah Öcalan had – from his detention on the prison island Imrali in the Sea of Marmara – called on the Kurdish PKK, which he had founded in 1978, to put down their weapons and to disband the organization in order to facilitate a democratic progress in Turkey. This call was welcomed by many Kurds, but also by the international community. On Saturday, March 1, the leaders of the PKK had then agreed on a unilateral ceasefire.