Turkey: why is the peace process with the PKK stalling?
Just under two years after PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan called for the organisation to be disbanded, the peace process in Turkey appears to be losing momentum. President Erdoğan has urged patience. İbrahim Kalın, head of the country's National Intelligence Organisation, has blamed the PKK's leadership for the delays, but also called on Ankara to introduce democratic reforms.
Repression instead of democratisation
There is currently no sign of democratisation in Turkey, criticises the left-wing newspaper Evrensel:
“The head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organisation Ibrahim Kalın says that progress on the Kurdish issue must rest on two pillars; disarmament plus steps towards democratisation. Only then can a 'mechanism of trust' be established. ... Yet in the two years without fighting there has been not the slightest step towards democratisation. On the contrary, repression has intensified and the country has been turned into something like an open-air prison. Whether politicians or journalists, trade unionists or students: anyone in the country who has questioned the regime's policies has found themselves in prison.”
On the verge of a breakthrough
There is no cause for impatience with the peace process, pro-government newspaper Akşam stresses:
“Around two years have passed since the process began. There can be no doubt that a great deal of headway has been made, but there is a perception that the process is too slow. However, it is neither realistic nor possible to dismiss a problem that has defined Turkey's last fifty years – and whose bloody consequences have affected the whole country – with a simple 'We've made a decision; we'll sort it out in a few months'. ... We are at a turning point in the resolution process at which the armed conflict will end completely and the political solution will emerge.”