Peace process underscores existence of Kurds

Thirty Turkish Kurdish Workers Party PKK fighters destroyed their arms on Friday in a highly symbolic ceremony celebrating the end of their four-decade revolt against the Turkish state and a halt to a century of Ankara's efforts to Turkify the non-Turkic Kurds. It is significant that the event — attended by Turkish and Iraqi politicians, leading figures, and journalists — was held in the northern Iraqi semi-autonomous Kurdish province of Sulaymaniyah rather than in Turkey due to security concerns.

Ahead of the ceremony, veteran Turkish Kurdish politician Leyla Zana called on Ankara to change its "terrorism" law: "I do not accept that Kurds be accused of terrorism." She added. "For 100 years oppression has been inflicted on Kurds and for 100 years Kurds have resisted.In this 21st century, we say let neither of us. nor our partners, nor the oppressed people lose anything." She argued that the most significant thing which the peace process has achieved is “from today onward, no one in the world arena can say the Kurds do not exist." She made history in 1991 when she became the first Kurdish woman to take a seat in Turkey's parliament. When she persisted with Kurdish activism, she was jailed from 1994 to 2004, and became an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience and won several human rights awards.

In a broadcast two days before the ceremony, the prime mover of the peace process, the PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan called the shift from armed conflict to democratic politics as a “historic gain.” He said the creation of a Turkish parliamentary committee to oversee the step-by-step process should be "implemented swiftly." In February, Ocalan proclaimed an end to the 40-year war which killed 40,000 people and in May the PKK announced the dissolution.

Peacemaking with the PKK provides benefits and poses risks for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power for more than 20 years. He seeks popular and parliamentary support for a fourth term in office in May 2028 and has cracked down on the opposition in recent months. Erdogan will take credit if PKK disarmament is peacefully completed but if clashes erupt and the process is disrupted, he will be blamed and could be held accountable at the ballot box.

Ahead of the ceremony, he told legislators from his ruling Justice and Development party, “Once the wall of terror is torn down, God willing, everything will change. More pain and tears will be prevented. The winners of this [process] will be the whole of Turkey – Turks, Kurds and Arabs. Then it will be our entire region." He added, "We hope that this auspicious process will conclude successfully as soon as possible, without any road accidents, and without it being sabotaged by dark and corrupt circles." The end of the PKK revolt is a major development for both Turks and Kurds. The revered founder of the modern Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, promoted Turkification through assimilation of Arab, Circassian and Kurdish minorities, the latter forming 15-20 per cent of the country's population. Turkey banned the Kurdish language, culture, and history, and massacred, oppressed and discriminated against the Kurds. They resisted. The PKK was established in 1978 to fight for independence while other Kurdish organisations and political parties lobbied for recognition and civil rights. PKK guerrillas fought a losing battle and took refuge in Iraq's Qandil mountains where they were routinely bombed by the Turkish air force.

In 2005, the PKK began negotiations with Erdogan to secure Kurdish rights in a democratic system. This process has exerted pressure on Syria's Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to merge with the Syrian army and return the area under SDF control, 25 per cent of Syria, to rule by Damascus’ Haya't Tahrir al-Sham government. Last week Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, met in Syria’s capital with SDF commander, Mazlum Kobane, and US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack to discuss such a deal.

Erdogan's efforts to resolve Turkey's current “Kurdish problem" may survive for some time but is unlikely to end the Kurds' drive for an independent state in Kurdish majority areas in Turkey and its neighbours.

While Kurdish communities are scattered across Turkey, the Kurds predominate in the east and southeast of the country where the Kurds regard the region as Northern Kurdistan. Northern Iraq is dubbed Southern Kurdistan, northwestern Iran becomes Eastern Kurdistan, and northern Syria is seen as Western Kurdistan. While Ankara, Tehran, Baghdad, and Damascus are the major obstacles to a potential Kurdish land grab, the Kurds are not united and dispute among themselves.

The Kurds' host countries never addressed their recurring "Kurdish problem" which long pre-dates the existence of these states. The Kurds are neither of Turkic nor Arab stock. It is believed they descend from Indo-European tribes that migrated to this region around 4,000 years ago, and partially merged with local populations while retaining their Indo-European ethnicity language and distinctive customs. The majority of Kurds are Sunnis, although there are significant Kurdish Shia and non-Muslim Yezidi and Alevi sub-minorities.

While Kurdish revolts have challenged Arab and Ottoman empires, Kurds have also played an important role in the region's history. The great warrior Salaheddin who defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hittin in Palestine and drove them from Jerusalem in 1187 was a Kurd born and raised in Tikrit, Iraq. He is seen as the most famous and significant Kurd in history. Arab, Turkish, and foreign writers have largely excluded the Kurds from histories of the region. This being the case, the Kurds are now staking their claim in the narrative of the 21st century.