Eurasia Press & News
West Asia has been greatly affected by numerous conflicts for more than a century, with the Kurdish issue being one of the oldest and most intractable in the region. Yet, due to recent initiatives taken by the Kurds, it is today closer to a solution than ever. If the two political processes led by Kurdish representatives in Turkey and Syria succeed, West Asia will get a real chance at becoming a more democratic, stable and prosperous region in 2025. The positive implications will be felt immediately by the region’s neighbours, thus making it imperative for them to facilitate the efforts.
The Kurdish question is over 100 years old, rooted in the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) signed by Britain and France to partition the Ottoman empire under Western spheres of influence. The Treaty of Lausanne (1923) recognised Turkey as the successor to the Ottoman empire and divided the Kurdish homeland between Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. Ever since, the Kurdish population has been faced with a policy of denial and genocide, including systematic assimilation, ethnic cleansing and human rights violations. Particularly in Turkey, this ongoing injustice has led to numerous uprisings among the Kurds. The foundation of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) by Abdullah Öcalan in 1978 constitutes the most recent and longest of them. It has led to the emergence of dozens of other social, cultural and political Kurdish organizations in all four parts of Kurdistan today.
Abdullah Öcalan’s philosophical ideas have inspired major changes among the Kurdish people, despite his detention on the Turkish prison island Imrali since 1999. Their insistence on inclusive democratic principles, the leading role of women in all walks of life and an ecological economic system has turned the more than 50 million Kurds into central actors in West Asia. A practical solution for solving the issue within the existing borders of the four countries they live in is on the table. The main strategy is to promote the democratization of each of the countries through the resolution of the Kurdish question – a crucial step for the promotion of democratic values, political reforms and a social transformation in West Asia as a whole.
The two following developments that started recently in Turkey and Syria illustrate this clearly.
Ten years after the last negotiations, new talks between Turkish officials and Abdullah Öcalan were recently made public. This came after Erdoğan’s coalition partner and leader of the ultra-nationalist party MHP, Devlet Bahçeli, indicated in early October[1] last year that Turkey will face a serious crisis if the Kurdish issue stayed suspended. Since then, the pro-Kurdish DEM Party MPs and lawyers were allowed to visit Öcalan in prison. As a response, Öcalan made a historic call[2] for a “peace and a democratic society” on February 27 from prison. He stressed the importance of a political and legal framework for resolving the Kurdish issue in Turkey with its parliament playing a central role in the process, and called on the PKK to lay down arms and dissolve itself when the two conditions were met. This was greeted with broad international support, including from the US, UN, EU, Germany, China and the Gulf States. A unilateral ceasefire declaration[3] by the PKK followed on March 1, with calls for Turkey to stop its military attacks.
Why have renewed talks with Abdullah Öcalan started now? Turkey’s attempts in the last 50 years to militarily suppress Kurdish political efforts at home and abroad have caused a major political and economic crisis in the country. Numan Kurtulmuş, the speaker of Turkey’s parliament, recently acknowledged that the war against the Kurds had caused $2 trillion in economic harm to the country. Turkey is increasingly isolated, its EU membership delayed because of its unresolved Kurdish issue; its attempt to join BRICS was unsuccessful and its competition with regional powers like Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia is increasing.
The escalating wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, have given an opening to Erdogan and his far right ally Devlet Bahçeli to voice their concerns about the future stability and unity of Turkey. The military and political leadership increasingly accepts that the all-out war against the Kurds and the PKK since 2015 has not achieved the desired results. A broad international campaign supported by trade unions, former Nobel laureates and Members of the European Parliament has increased the pressure on Erdogan to rethink his stance, making peace a real option for Turkey.
For the Kurds, the dissolution of the PKK and the end of its armed struggle is not viewed as a defeat, but rather as a renewed turn to democratic politics. It remains for Turkey to turn the talks into reality, but releasing Abdullah Öcalan, acknowledging the political and cultural rights of the Kurds, ending the military operations and drafting a democratic constitution will be important steps in this process. The formation of a parliamentary commission can constitute a first important step in order to establish a political and legal framework for successful negotiations.
The situation in Syria is closely related to the developments in Turkey. This is especially due to Turkey’s military attacks against the Kurds in the country’s north-east, including daily air strikes and the use of radical mercenary groups such as the Islamic State (IS) or the Syrian National Army (SNA). In this light, the memorandum-of-understanding (MOU) signed on March 10 between Syria’s transitional government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)[4] constitutes an important antidote to Turkey’s destabilization of Syria.
According to the memorandum, the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), in which the Kurds play a crucial role, will become an integral part of a new Syria, including its political administration, economy, defence forces and education system. In short, this means the acknowledgment of the Kurds as a historical part of Syria’s social fabric. Until end-2025, separate commissions will work on the details of the implementation of all eight points of the memorandum. The establishment of a common framework, especially in the field of education, has already made progress in recent weeks. The time-bound implementation of the MOU will serve as an important correction of the autocratic trends in Damascus, such as the recently published ‘constitutional declaration’ or the new cabinet of the interim government consisting mostly of loyal al-Nusra members of the Salafi-jihadist strain. The participation of women in the cabinet and a secularist agenda will gain them some goodwill.
This year will witness ever more significant changes in West Asia. The resolution of the Kurdish question will send a positive signal for the cessation of other on-going conflicts in the region, and hopefully break the cycle of war and depravation in the region.
