After nearly a decade-long hiatus, is Turkey on the cusp of a new peace process with its Kurds? The question has been furiously debated ever since Devlet Bahceli, the far-right nationalist leader allied with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, walked over and shook the hands of Kurdish nationalist lawmakers he long decried as “terrorists” and “pests” during the opening session of parliament last week.

Opposing Kurdish rights and demonizing the pro-Kurdish DEM Party are the motivational ethos of Bahceli’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). So what has changed? Did Erdogan put him up to it? If so, why? Three well-placed sources with intimate knowledge of the government’s Kurdish dossier told Al-Monitor that exploratory talks for a possible resumption of actual negotiations between the government and Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), were already underway. Two of the sources said that Ocalan had been allowed recently to speak directly to the PKK leadership that is based in the Qandil Mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan. “Ocalan told them it was time to discuss laying down their arms,” one of the sources said. When they asked him how their own future would be decided, Ocalan grew angry and hung up the phone, one of the sources said. The second source said the alleged conversation had not gone smoothly but did not provide further details. The sources did not describe how communication had been secured. Al-Monitor has contacted PKK sources in Iraq via WhatsApp. 

“We can say that a new peace process has begun,” claimed one of the sources, who, like the others, requested anonymity in order to speak freely. “Officials are meeting with Ocalan.” 

Al-Monitor was unable to corroborate the sources' version of events with the PKK. Rebel sources had not responded to Al-Monitor's request for comment as of publication time.