High Stakes for Erdogan In Turkish Talks With PKK
Semih Idiz considers whether Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and imprisoned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan are speaking past each other in the current Imrali process.
The leaking of the “Imrali minutes” has not dampened Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s desire to press on with the peace talks with Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed head of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who is serving a life sentence on the Island of Imrali. Erdogan has vowed to “drink poison hemlock” for the sake of peace.
Meanwhile, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which some see as the political wing of the PKK, and which is acting as an intermediary between Ocalan and PKK elements in Europe and the Kandil Mountains in Northern Iraq, has said it is willing to go the full distance for the success of the talks.
Murat Karayilan, the commander of active PKK elements in Northern Iraq, has also said much the same, so it seems the current “process,” as it is derisively being called because of Turkish antipathy toward the idea of “negotiating with terrorists,” will weather the storm caused by the leak.
This is the good news for those interested in seeing the talks succeed. But there is also some bad news that comes with the leaking of the Imrali minutes, which makes one wary about the chances of success.
