Turkish government’s peace initiative to solve Turkey’s Kurdish issue has been moving forward without a break since members of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) talked to Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned Kurdistan Workers Party leader on the island of Imrali, in late December 2012 to discuss cooperation on bringing the bloodshed to an end.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized the media’s coverage of these talks and complained about a lack of support for his policies, as reported in yesterday’s column.

Ahmet Turk, a member of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) actually said on Monday, March 4 that his concern is that “this process has no road map — or if it has one, it’s not been announced yet.”

There is, however, an undeniable sense among the population that this conflict needs closure for the bloodshed to end. Since the PKK first attacked on Turkish soil in 1984, more than 40,000 have died, according to some estimates. As people grow ever more tired of the ongoing cost to the nation in blood and treasure, there is a lively debate as to whether the government is taking the right steps to solve this chronic issue.