Turkey’s ‘Peace Process’ Is Just Starting
The politics of the Turkish-Kurdish peace initiative are just beginning to play out for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Sticking to its promises, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) appears to have started pulling out from Turkey as agreed with Ankara. At least 50 militants are said to have crossed into Iraqi Kurdistan since May 8.
The process, however, is just starting. The statements made by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in late December and by PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in March were only preliminary messages. The doubts are over. According to confidential information, the approximately 2,500 PKK rebels in Turkey will complete their withdrawal — armed or unarmed — sometime between Aug. 15 (the day PKK launched its armed rebellion in 1984) and Sept. 21 (World Peace Day).
There is nothing surprising here. No matter what, the political pair guiding the peace process, Erdogan and Ocalan, have “shaken hands from a distance.” Since they have both invested their popularity and clout in it, the progress should be taken seriously.
It is even more important to note that the more the settlement effort deepens, the more the door will close on the dark history which the sides want to leave behind.
