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In this week’s recap:
Bahçeli wants a status update for Öcalan
CHP plays offense, congress case looms
Ankara-Yerevan advance normalization efforts
Domestic and diplomatic wraps
Turkish language watchdog eyes diacritic mârks
Also from us this week:
Suzy Hansen joins Recap radio to talk about how Turkey changed under Erdoğan
Tomorrow: Emily Rice Johnson covers the latest inflation bump in Economy recap
Disclosure: This week’s main news centers on the peace process, so let me again disclose that my wife is an MP with DEM Party.
After months of abstract concepts and debates, the PKK peace process took on a more solid form this week with the release of a 15-volume book series on Kurdish literature and history by the Ministry of Culture and Mardin Artuklu University.
This flew under the radar and is not the much-awaited legal reforms, but it represents a meaningful recognition of Kurdish culture in Anatolia — the denial of which is at the core of the 40-year conflict the PKK and the Turkish state are currently trying to end.
Yet, how both sides are approaching a resolution remains highly abstract, mainly through the renaming of groups and individuals this week in keeping with the leftist tradition of changing words while leaving power structures intact. Though some real changes are coming maybe …
What happened: Following reports the peace talks had stalled, Pres. Erdoğan’s coalition partner and MHP chair Devlet Bahçeli called on the state Tuesday to grant the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan a more official status as a chief negotiator in the process (which he is).
This mirrors one of the requests shared by the PKK leadership the same day, when they announced the group would rebrand itself as an “Apoist Movement”, stemming from the “Apo” nickname for Öcalan.
In their statement, the militants said they had begun to disarm, completed withdrawal from border areas and released prisoners associated with Turkish intelligence as requested by state officials.
But they complained that Ankara has taken “no practical steps” to implement the proposals in the parliamentary peace process report finalized this February.
To facilitate the coming reforms, Bahçeli called for the establishment of a “Peace Process and Politicization Coordination Office.” It’s worth noting this all comes after he met with Erdoğan last week (pictured above), and the president has yet to comment on the status updates.
What’s changing: The peace talks remain opaque and public information is sparse, but the trend lines above will need to intersect at Imralı island, where Öcalan is imprisoned and may soon oversee some form of coordination office, according to Roj Girasun, director of Rawest Research.
“The new ‘status’ concept most likely refers to the redefinition of conditions for communication, meetings, work and political dialogue,” Girasun told Turkey recap.
“In practice, this could mean the opening of contact channels with different actors, further formalizing Imralı as a regular negotiation center.”
He added improved living conditions for Öcalan may also come at later stages, possibly in the form of new house arrest parameters.
None of this is new to close followers of the peace process, but drafting policies and executing them are two separate and complicated tasks. For now, the main takeaway is that the process has not stalled completely amid ongoing negotiations.
“I think [Bahçeli’s] speech is one that can breathe new life into the process, ease it, and pave the way for its progress,” DEM Party deputy group chair Gülüstan Kılıç Koçyiğit told Reuters Tuesday.
What’s next: MHP officials continue to lay the rhetorical groundwork for reforms, most recently with this commentary by Bahçeli’s advisor — who sells it as a loss for the US and Israel.
Meanwhile, MHP lawmakers told Stüdyo recap they believed the process should not be tied to elections, arguing a lasting resolution requires a timeline independent of calculated political payoffs.
As for the AKP, some officials remain more cautious, telling the BBC they want confirmation and verification systems in place to track the disarmament. Intel chief Ibrahim Kalın, who’s been out of the spotlight for a while, is currently overseeing these preparations, according to Türkiye Gazetesi.
The rest remains to be seen. Looking at the broader picture, Rawest research director Girasun said the peace process “passed the Syria test”, where SDF-Damascus integration is underway. It’s also passing the Iran test, after initial concerns of Kurdish separatism across Turkey’s eastern border.
That said, Girasun said the main obstacles remain in Turkey’s domestic sphere.
“The greatest dilemma I have observed regarding the process … is the difference and the gap between Erdoğan and Bahçeli. This largely stems from Erdoğan’s cautiousness due to elections,” he told Turkey recap.
“As the window narrows toward the election, Erdoğan’s caution regarding taking deep-rooted and radical steps may increase, the pressure from the MHP may rise, and the impatience of Kurdish politics may grow,” he added. “Managing the tension within these three areas will be the new test of the process.”
Özgüerilla tactics: CHP plays offense, congress case looms
