Turkey's Kurds wary of path to peace after PKK declares ceasefire

Independent

01-03-2025

A momentous ceasefire declaration on Saturday stirred a mix of emotions in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, where people bore the brunt of the 40-year conflict between Kurdish militants and the Turkish state.
The militants' ceasefire announcement could mark a significant boost to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, two days after their imprisoned leader called for the group to disarm.
On the streets of Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast, some of those who had lost relatives fighting on the side of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, were wary of placing their faith in the Turkish government. Turkey has yet to make a detailed response to the PKK's ceasefire announcement.
'We do not trust them, they said the same things before, nothing has changed. Twelve years ago they said peace, peace, peace. Then there was a ceasefire and then we saw what happened,' said Turkan Duman, 56, referring to a previous peace process that broke down in 2015.
She said her son is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for PKK membership. He was jailed after crossing the Syrian border to fight with Kurdish forces against the Islamic State group at Kobani in late 2014.
Duman also lost two brothers who were killed fighting Turkish security forces in the mid-2010s near Lice, a town to the north of Diyarbakir where the PKK was founded in 1978.
Kiymet Soresoglu, who like Duman is part of the Peace Mothers' Association, also expressed doubt over the government's intentions. 'Of course we want peace to be established. We are afraid because they make plans or (could) play a trick,' she said.
Soresoglu, 55, also has a son serving a prison term for being a member of the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
He was wounded in fighting in Diyarbakir's downtown Sur district when the earlier ceasefire broke down 10 years ago. 'There is not a single inch of land left in Kurdistan where the blood of martyrs has not been shed,' she said.
'If they tell us to lay down our weapons without expecting anything in return, we, the guerrillas and mothers of martyrs, will not accept this. We would be the ones that would take the weapons of our children and continue the struggle.'
Sitting alongside her friend, Duman added: 'But we want peace. Peace so that no more blood is shed, it is a sin.'
Since the PKK launched its armed campaign against the Turkish state in 1984, tens of thousands have died. Exact casualties are difficult to calculate but the International Crisis Group says 7,152 have been killed since fighting resumed in July 2015, including 646 civilians, 1,494 members of the security forces and 4,786 PKK militants.
Saturday's ceasefire announcement was preceeded two days earlier by imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan's call for the group to disarm and disband.
Vahap Coskun, a law lecturer at Diyarbakir's Dicle University, said this indicated how closely the PKK leadership based in northern Iraq was in step with Ocalan despite his 25 years behind bars.
'A very high threshold has been crossed in terms of disarmament,' he said, adding that he expected the PKK to move swiftly to hold a congress to dissolve itself.
'Unlike the last solution process, this solution process is being handled with utmost sensitivity regarding the use of time,' Coskun added.
Across the mountainous Iraqi border, which for years saw PKK insurgents slip into Turkey to stage attacks, Kurds in Sulaymaniyah welcomed the ceasefire with hopeful expectation.
Najmadin Bahaadin described it as a 'historical moment' different from previous peace deals.
'It is not like the previous experiments where the PKK stopped the war several times and demanded peace but (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan and Turkish policy were not convinced,' he said. 'It seems they both reached to this conviction now.'
Sulaymaniyah, in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, is the city closest to the PKK's headquarters in the Qandil mountains and many locals support the group.
Awat Rashid questioned whether Ocalan had been pressured by his captors to make the peace bid.
'If Mr. Ocalan was in the Qandil mountains, on top of his leadership council, would he make this peace decision? This is the question that should be asked,' he said. 'To what extent you think this is reliable and it can be trusted?'
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Ahmad contributed from Sulaymaniyah, Iraq