Erdogan's Domestic Challenges Of Peace with the PKK
Prime Minister Erdogan's peace initiative with the PKK should be understood in the context of his other domestic political initiatives, writes Kadri Gursel.
The slaying of three PKK activists at the Kurdish Information Center in Paris last Thursday made it clear that the Turkish government’s renewed efforts to disarm the PKK won’t be a stroll in the park.
It appears Turkey will continue to be confronted by provocations that could be traced to third parties meddling in Turkey’s Kurdish issue.
But then provocations that could set back what the Turkish media has dubbed as the “Imrali process,” an allusion to the Imrali Island Prison where Turkish government officials have been meeting the PKK’s founding leader Abdullah Ocalan, don’t necessarily have to originate from third parties.
Peculiar features of the bilateral contacts between Ankara and PKK produce plenty of challenges themselves that could be more destructive to the process.
