Turkey has been resorting to numerous channels to ensure that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) lays down its arms. In this context, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had an important meeting earlier this week with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. It is also known that Turkey has been nurturing positive dialogue with Iraq as well.
Massoud Barzani, the head of the regional Kurdish government in northern Iraq, has adopted a prudent approach in determining its attitude towards Turkey.
Now, the plan is to isolate the PKK and to urge it to lay down arms through efforts in cooperation with Europe and NATO against the group.
The next step is to discuss the issue with Iran. An item at the top of the agenda for the visit to Iran, scheduled in the near future, will be how to strip the PKK and its Iranian offshoot, the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), and Turkish officials will seek options for concrete cooperation to this end. During the meeting with Kurdish officials in northern Iraq, it was agreed in principle that a new camp should be established and that PKK leaders and militants who want to stay in Iraq should be allowed to do so or go to another country. Two important issues Prime Minister Erdoğan emphasized during his visit to Syria were ensuring that PKK militants of Syrian origins return to Syria and issuing such individuals ID cards. Actually, Assad had previously made a promise to this end. It is also believed that Syria can persuade the PKK to lay down arms.
Indeed, PKK leaders stayed in Syria for a long period of time. But will Syria step in to do this?
OK, why would Europe or NATO step in at this point? Let us first look at Germany. Visiting Turkey, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere recently said at a press conference: “We would like to lend support to Turkey in the political settlement of the Kurdish issue and in its fight against the PKK. There are many Kurdish citizens living in the EU. We do not want these people to lend material, logistical or operational contribution to the PKK. We decided to set up a joint committee on counterterrorism. Our intelligence service knows well about the executives of the terrorist organization living in Germany.” This was the first sign to come from the European side. Then, during Erdoğan’s talks in Germany last week, Turkey and Germany decided to take concrete steps in this regard. In particular, Germany will start to pursue a more active policy in blocking material or financial aid to the PKK.
The second important development was NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s recent visit to Turkey and his emphasis on the issue of eliminating support from European countries for the PKK. Rasmussen assured Turkey on this issue.
And the final development in this regard were meetings with two prominent leaders of the PKK, Zübeyir Aydar and Remzi Kartal, that were held in Brussels with a view to secure the involvement of the European wing of the PKK in the process. If rumors are true, the PKK’s European wing is eager to contribute to the settlement process. In short, Turkey is trying not only to secure the support of its neighbors, but also to ensure that Europe’s support for the PKK is severed and that the PKK’s European wing is made part of the negotiations. Much progress has been made, and it is very likely that the PKK may lay down its arms if the cease-fire continues.
Everything seems fine at this point. The strategy is to ensure the positive contribution of neighboring countries and major European countries to the process. But, it seems that this does not mean taking the PKK itself into consideration. If the plan is not to solve the major sources of the Kurdish issue, but instead purging the PKK and urging the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) towards a solution, then nothing will go as planned, and we will roll back to the beginning. The issue can only be solved permanently by eliminating the factors that lead to the emergence of the PKK.
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