A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #374 - Spotlight - Turkish Kurdistan: The Risky Gamble of Peace (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

After purely symbolic gestures, a law has just been passed in Turkey to 
end the war between the state and the PKK guerrillas. This peace 
framework is a strategy of the Kurdish left, but it is only the 
beginning of a process that could backfire. ---- This August, the "Law 
to Strengthen National Solidarity and Social Cohesion" was passed and 
ratified in Turkey. This law aims to end the conflict between the 
Kurdish revolutionary party PKK and the Turkish state. It comes more 
than a year after Abdullah Öcalan, the political leader of the Kurdish 
movement, called for peace from his cell on the prison island of Imrali, 
followed by the disarmament and symbolic dissolution of the PKK.

This law essentially provides a framework for ending the war. This 
includes, among other things, the situation of Kurdish political 
prisoners accused of "terrorism" and the return of fighters to civilian 
life, all under the supervision of an observation and coordination 
committee. Those convicted may have their cases reviewed and their 
sentences "postponed" and then overturned if no new offense is committed 
during this postponement period. This amounts to a kind of highly 
conditional and fragile general amnesty that would affect nearly 80,000 
people. While most decisions will be made by the judiciary, the legal 
framework and the committee allow for executive involvement. Above all, 
there is no guarantee that the anti-terrorism laws, which are 
particularly broad in Turkey, will not be applied again against the 
Kurdish opposition.

Finally, the law makes no provision for the issues that caused the 
conflict: the erasure of a people, their language, their culture, and 
the dispossession of their land by an authoritarian and centralizing 
state. The DEM party, the institutional party of the Kurdish left, 
announced that this law was only a first step. The objective is to end 
counter-terrorism as the mode of governance in Kurdistan. This stifles 
political activity, but above all, this state of perpetual war in Turkey 
reinforces the authoritarianism of the state. Peace is therefore only a 
first step towards the democratization of Turkey, the ultimate goal of 
which would be a constitutional change capable of providing a lasting 
solution to the problems of the Kurds in Turkey.

The dangers of an unjust peace
This law was passed unanimously by the right wing. President Erdoğan's 
AKP has hailed it as a decisive step toward a "terrorism-free" Turkey, 
while the ultranationalist MHP sees it as a necessity to end what they 
call the "home front" within the broader context of the Middle Eastern 
conflict. For many actors, including the Turkish far left, this peace 
process is a way for Erdoğan to prepare for the upcoming presidential 
elections by defusing the possibility of an alliance between Kemalist 
and Kurdish opposition forces, and by presenting himself to the public 
as the one who has resolved the Kurdish question.

This law is a first concrete step by the Turkish state, but the road to 
peace is far from guaranteed. As a revolutionary, it is difficult to 
observe this reform process with any certainty that Kurdish democratic 
and cultural aspirations will be possible within a state that 
relentlessly oppresses its opposition. The aspirations for peace are 
legitimate, but only time will tell if it will have had the hoped-for 
transformative impact in Turkey and, beyond, in the Middle East.

Corentin (UCL Kreiz-Breizh)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Kurdistan-turc-Le-pari-risque-de-la-paix
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