Turkey’s Negotiations with the PKK

The government’s recent direct talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the call by Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the PKK, for the PKK’s withdrawal from Turkey are a turning point in the history of Turkey’s Kurdish problem. How did it become possible to initiate such a risky process? Three circumstances have made the negotiations with the PKK possible. One is war fatigue. Another is the military stalemate between the Turkish army and the PKK. The third is Ankara’s apparent conclusion that the international setting has made the solution of the PKK problem an urgent “must-do.” If it ends in serious success, the peace process will definitely have created a new Turkey.