In the context of a prolonged war of the Turkish state against the
Kurds, a series of events that occurred in October seems to open a new
historical phase in the relations between the Turkish state and the
Kurdistan liberation movement and allow a limited hope for a democratic
solution to the Kurdish question. ---- Since its founding in 1923,
Turkey has pursued nationalist policies of oppression and assimilation
aimed at artificially creating a homogeneous Turkish people, denying the
presence of several peoples on its territory. Today, it is waging a war
against the very existence of the Kurds on its territory and beyond its
borders, in particular through policies of colonial oppression, open
warfare and torture of political prisoners.
The last negotiations between Turkey and the Kurdish movement date back
to 2015 and ended with massacres committed by Turkey, deploying the army
and bombing its own territory in cities that had declared their
autonomy. But several events that occurred during the month of October
seem to pave the way for a new - and fragile - peace process.
Discussion seems possible again
On October 13, the DEM Party, the main pro-Kurdish alliance, organized a
meeting in Amed (Diyarbakir, in Turkish) "for freedom and against
isolation", meaning that of Abdullah Öcalan[1], imprisoned since 1999
and in total isolation since March 2020. Despite the ban on the
gathering, the mobilization was a successful show of force. The DEM
Party reaffirmed that Öcalan was an essential interlocutor for attempts
to build peace in the Middle East and Turkey.
On October 22, the leader of the MHP, a fascist party and ally of
Erdogan's AKP, Devlet Bahçeli, a great hater of the Kurds, created a
surprise by asking to allow Öcalan to come and speak in Parliament to
declare the dissolution of the PKK and the end of the armed struggle. He
was seconded in the process by Ozgür Özel, leader of the CHP, a
social-democratic and nationalist party.
On October 23, MP Ömer Öcalan, Abdullah's nephew, was able to meet his
uncle in his prison in Imrali, constituting the first proof of life of
the Kurdish leader after 43 months of total isolation. The same day, an
attack was carried out against a Turkish arms company, killing seven
people, including the two attackers. The Turkish government immediately
accused the PKK and bombed civilian infrastructure in Rojava that same
evening in retaliation, killing fifteen civilians.
The PKK command claimed responsibility for the attack the next day,
stating that the action was carried out by an autonomous battalion and
that it had been planned for a long time, regardless of the political
agenda recently discussed in Turkey. Contrary to Turkey's discourse on
the weakness of the guerrilla and its non-existence in Bakur[2], this
action on the contrary reminds us, on the eve of announced negotiations,
that the guerrilla can strike inside Turkish territory.
Demonstration in the city of Amed, on November 8, 2024, to protest
against the appointment of administrators to replace the elected co-mayors.
BERFIN CALAN
Why does Turkey want to talk to the Kurds?
Turkey is caught up in the stakes of the genocidal war in Palestine led
by Israel and the invasion of Lebanon, with the current Israeli
government's announced desires to create a "greater Israel" whose
borders would reconfigure the Middle East. While it is currently
unlikely that Israel will attack Turkey, a NATO member country, head-on,
it is a possibility that the Turkish regime cannot ignore, encouraging
it to want to resolve the "Kurdish problem" so as not to fight on
several fronts.
This temporality is part of a context of deep economic crisis aggravated
by military spending committed to the war on its eastern borders.
Caution remains the order of the day
The war in the Middle East could lead to the destabilization of the
Iranian and Syrian regimes, thus opening a breach for the Kurds,
allowing AANES[3]to become an autonomous region of Syria or the Kurds of
Iran to rise up against the regime. These scenarios, although they are
currently far from being realized, have something to worry the Turkish
state, which fears a unification of the Kurds close to its borders. On
the Turkish political scene, the AKP is in a bad position, with Erdogan
predicted to lose in the next elections by all the polls.
The DEM Party is the third political force in Turkey and the Kurds
represent between 20 and 25 million people, out of a population of 85
million inhabitants. This makes the Kurds a coveted electorate that,
while not homogeneous, has the power to tip the balance in favor of the
AKP or the CHP depending on the concessions obtained, at the very moment
when Erdogan is seeking to amend the constitution in order to be able to
run for president again. The opening of these discussions also
represents an opportunity for Turkey to divide the Kurdish movement by
creating contradictions about abandoning the armed struggle.
These circumstances lead the different political forces in Turkey to
want to form temporary alliances with the Kurds. However, Turkey is so
deeply engaged in its war against the Kurds that it is difficult to
imagine it backing down[4]. The Kurdish movement will have to obtain
concrete concessions and prepare to be betrayed. The DEM Party has
already set as a condition changes to the Turkish constitution to
guarantee equality and rights to cultural, linguistic and religious
diversity. The condition of a mediating country guaranteeing the
negotiations was also raised during the meeting with A. Öcalan.
Beyond the recent context, any peace process without sufficient balance
of power carries the risk of being nothing more than a pacification
leading to the abandonment of the revolutionary struggle without real
social progress for the colonized. However, these discussions do not
slow down the Turkish oppressive machine. Military planes continue to
take off every day to bomb Basur[5]and Rojava[6].
Furthermore, on November 4, the Turkish state appointed administrators
to replace the co-mayors elected last March, accused as is often the
case of terrorism. Popular resistance was immediately established in the
cities in question and in the rest of Bakur via massive mobilizations,
riots and night guards organized in the town halls. The balance of power
will be crucial, this theft of self-governance risks, as in 2016 and
2019, being generalized to the other town halls won by the DEM Party
last March.
Morgane (UCL International Relations Commission)
Validate
[1]Co-founder of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
[2]Kurdish name designating the North of Kurdistan, i.e. the part
located on the territory of the Turkish State.
[3]Totally autonomous administration of the North and East of Syria.
[4]Read "Recognizing a war when you see one", July 2019, on Serhildan.org
[5]South of Kurdistan, i.e. the part located in present-day Iraq.
[6]Western part of Kurdistan, located in present-day Syria.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Turquie-Kurdistan-Vers-un-nouveau-processus-de-paix
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Kurds, a series of events that occurred in October seems to open a new
historical phase in the relations between the Turkish state and the
Kurdistan liberation movement and allow a limited hope for a democratic
solution to the Kurdish question. ---- Since its founding in 1923,
Turkey has pursued nationalist policies of oppression and assimilation
aimed at artificially creating a homogeneous Turkish people, denying the
presence of several peoples on its territory. Today, it is waging a war
against the very existence of the Kurds on its territory and beyond its
borders, in particular through policies of colonial oppression, open
warfare and torture of political prisoners.
The last negotiations between Turkey and the Kurdish movement date back
to 2015 and ended with massacres committed by Turkey, deploying the army
and bombing its own territory in cities that had declared their
autonomy. But several events that occurred during the month of October
seem to pave the way for a new - and fragile - peace process.
Discussion seems possible again
On October 13, the DEM Party, the main pro-Kurdish alliance, organized a
meeting in Amed (Diyarbakir, in Turkish) "for freedom and against
isolation", meaning that of Abdullah Öcalan[1], imprisoned since 1999
and in total isolation since March 2020. Despite the ban on the
gathering, the mobilization was a successful show of force. The DEM
Party reaffirmed that Öcalan was an essential interlocutor for attempts
to build peace in the Middle East and Turkey.
On October 22, the leader of the MHP, a fascist party and ally of
Erdogan's AKP, Devlet Bahçeli, a great hater of the Kurds, created a
surprise by asking to allow Öcalan to come and speak in Parliament to
declare the dissolution of the PKK and the end of the armed struggle. He
was seconded in the process by Ozgür Özel, leader of the CHP, a
social-democratic and nationalist party.
On October 23, MP Ömer Öcalan, Abdullah's nephew, was able to meet his
uncle in his prison in Imrali, constituting the first proof of life of
the Kurdish leader after 43 months of total isolation. The same day, an
attack was carried out against a Turkish arms company, killing seven
people, including the two attackers. The Turkish government immediately
accused the PKK and bombed civilian infrastructure in Rojava that same
evening in retaliation, killing fifteen civilians.
The PKK command claimed responsibility for the attack the next day,
stating that the action was carried out by an autonomous battalion and
that it had been planned for a long time, regardless of the political
agenda recently discussed in Turkey. Contrary to Turkey's discourse on
the weakness of the guerrilla and its non-existence in Bakur[2], this
action on the contrary reminds us, on the eve of announced negotiations,
that the guerrilla can strike inside Turkish territory.
Demonstration in the city of Amed, on November 8, 2024, to protest
against the appointment of administrators to replace the elected co-mayors.
BERFIN CALAN
Why does Turkey want to talk to the Kurds?
Turkey is caught up in the stakes of the genocidal war in Palestine led
by Israel and the invasion of Lebanon, with the current Israeli
government's announced desires to create a "greater Israel" whose
borders would reconfigure the Middle East. While it is currently
unlikely that Israel will attack Turkey, a NATO member country, head-on,
it is a possibility that the Turkish regime cannot ignore, encouraging
it to want to resolve the "Kurdish problem" so as not to fight on
several fronts.
This temporality is part of a context of deep economic crisis aggravated
by military spending committed to the war on its eastern borders.
Caution remains the order of the day
The war in the Middle East could lead to the destabilization of the
Iranian and Syrian regimes, thus opening a breach for the Kurds,
allowing AANES[3]to become an autonomous region of Syria or the Kurds of
Iran to rise up against the regime. These scenarios, although they are
currently far from being realized, have something to worry the Turkish
state, which fears a unification of the Kurds close to its borders. On
the Turkish political scene, the AKP is in a bad position, with Erdogan
predicted to lose in the next elections by all the polls.
The DEM Party is the third political force in Turkey and the Kurds
represent between 20 and 25 million people, out of a population of 85
million inhabitants. This makes the Kurds a coveted electorate that,
while not homogeneous, has the power to tip the balance in favor of the
AKP or the CHP depending on the concessions obtained, at the very moment
when Erdogan is seeking to amend the constitution in order to be able to
run for president again. The opening of these discussions also
represents an opportunity for Turkey to divide the Kurdish movement by
creating contradictions about abandoning the armed struggle.
These circumstances lead the different political forces in Turkey to
want to form temporary alliances with the Kurds. However, Turkey is so
deeply engaged in its war against the Kurds that it is difficult to
imagine it backing down[4]. The Kurdish movement will have to obtain
concrete concessions and prepare to be betrayed. The DEM Party has
already set as a condition changes to the Turkish constitution to
guarantee equality and rights to cultural, linguistic and religious
diversity. The condition of a mediating country guaranteeing the
negotiations was also raised during the meeting with A. Öcalan.
Beyond the recent context, any peace process without sufficient balance
of power carries the risk of being nothing more than a pacification
leading to the abandonment of the revolutionary struggle without real
social progress for the colonized. However, these discussions do not
slow down the Turkish oppressive machine. Military planes continue to
take off every day to bomb Basur[5]and Rojava[6].
Furthermore, on November 4, the Turkish state appointed administrators
to replace the co-mayors elected last March, accused as is often the
case of terrorism. Popular resistance was immediately established in the
cities in question and in the rest of Bakur via massive mobilizations,
riots and night guards organized in the town halls. The balance of power
will be crucial, this theft of self-governance risks, as in 2016 and
2019, being generalized to the other town halls won by the DEM Party
last March.
Morgane (UCL International Relations Commission)
Validate
[1]Co-founder of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
[2]Kurdish name designating the North of Kurdistan, i.e. the part
located on the territory of the Turkish State.
[3]Totally autonomous administration of the North and East of Syria.
[4]Read "Recognizing a war when you see one", July 2019, on Serhildan.org
[5]South of Kurdistan, i.e. the part located in present-day Iraq.
[6]Western part of Kurdistan, located in present-day Syria.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Turquie-Kurdistan-Vers-un-nouveau-processus-de-paix
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten