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New York Times
12-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
What to Know About the P.K.K. and Its Fight Against Turkey
The Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish acronym P.K.K., said on Monday that it would lay down arms and disband, ending a decades-long armed insurgency against the Turkish state. The announcement came several months after the group's imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, urged his followers to disarm and disband. The move could reshape Turkish politics and reverberate in neighboring countries. The P.K.K. began as a secessionist group that sought to create an independent state for Turkey's Kurdish minority. More recently, it said it sought greater rights for Kurds inside Turkey. More than 40,000 people have been killed in four decades of conflict, both in P.K.K. attacks on military and civilian targets, and in Turkish military operations against the militants and the communities that harbor them. Turkey, the United States and other countries consider the group a terrorist organization. Here is what to know about the P.K.K. and its conflict with Turkey. What is the P.K.K.? The group began fighting the Turkish state in the early 1980s, originally seeking independence for the Kurds, who are believed to make up about 15 percent of Turkey's population. Starting from the mountains in eastern and southern Turkey, P.K.K. fighters attacked Turkish military bases and police stations, prompting harsh government responses. Later, the conflict spread to other parts of the country, with devastating P.K.K. bombings in Turkish cities that killed many civilians. During the past decade, the Turkish military has routed P.K.K. forces from major Kurdish cities in southeastern Turkey and used drones to kill its leaders and fighters, hindering the group's ability to organize and carry out attacks. The conflict has been on a low boil for years, although occasional P.K.K. attacks have revived fears of a wider conflict. Last year, a small squad of its militants stormed into the headquarters of a state-run aerospace company armed with rifles and explosives and killed five employees before the security forces regained control. Who is Abdullah Ocalan? Mr. Ocalan is the founder and leader of the P.K.K. He has been in a Turkish prison for a quarter-century. Many of Turkey's Kurds view Mr. Ocalan as a potent symbol of the struggle for Kurdish rights. And despite his imprisonment, he still wields great influence over the P.K.K. and its affiliated militias in Iraq, Iran and Syria. Mr. Ocalan founded the P.K.K. in the late 1970s with a group of other rebels and largely ran the organization from neighboring Syria as it launched attacks in southeastern Turkey and, later, in other major Turkish cities. In 1998, Syria forced him out and he traveled to Greece, Italy and Russia to seek asylum, before Turkish intelligence agents, with help from their U.S. counterparts, captured him on a plane at an airport in Nairobi, Kenya, on Feb. 15, 1999. After his capture in 1999, he was incarcerated on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara, south of Istanbul, where he was the only prisoner for many years. That same year, Turkey convicted him and sentenced him to death. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after Turkey abolished the death penalty as part of its bid to join the European Union. Since his incarceration, Mr. Ocalan has shifted the P.K.K. ideology away from secession and toward Kurdish rights inside Turkey. In a February message from prison, Mr. Ocalan said that the group's armed struggle had outlived its initial purpose and that further progress in the struggle for Kurdish rights could be achieved through politics. On Monday, the group echoed Mr. Ocalan's call to disband, saying in a statement that it had 'carried the Kurdish issue to a level where it can be solved by democratic politics, and the P.K.K. has completed its mission in that sense.' The group said that Mr. Ocalan should lead the process of disarming and called on Turkey's Parliament to take part. How does Turkey see Mr. Ocalan? For most Turks, Mr. Ocalan remains the country's most hated terrorist. Human rights groups criticized his isolation on Imrali Island. In 2009, five other prisoners were sent to the facility, and Mr. Ocalan was allowed to meet them a few times a week, according to Turkish news reports. But in recent years, Mr. Ocalan and the island's other inmates were not allowed any visitors, not even their lawyers, or any phone calls with family members. In October, a powerful political ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made a surprising public call to Mr. Ocalan, requesting that he tell his fighters to lay down their arms and end the conflict. That led to limited visits from relatives and political allies of Mr. Ocalan to explore the possibility of a new peace process. What happens next? The next steps were not immediately clear. The P.K.K. and pro-Kurdish politicians have called for Mr. Ocalan's release or at least for a loosening of the restrictions on him to allow him to oversee disarmament. It was also not immediately clear how the decision would affect P.K.K. bases hidden in the mountainous areas of Iraq's northern Kurdish region. Turkey has repeatedly bombarded P.K.K. strongholds in northern Iraq, as well as the group's offshoot controlling northeastern regions of Syria, branding them a terrorist threat near its borders. Turkish officials have said publicly that the government offered no concessions to the P.K.K. to persuade it to disarm. But officials from Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party have expressed hope that the government would expand cultural and educational rights for Kurds. The P.K.K.'s declaration could influence other Kurdish militias, particularly in Syria, and shift regional dynamics beyond Turkey's borders. It could also expand support among Kurds for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which many analysts suspect that he covets to change the Constitution and seek a third presidential term. Who are the Kurds? The Kurds are an ethnic group of roughly 40 million people — there are widely varying estimates — concentrated in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. They speak multiple dialects of Kurdish, a language not directly related to Turkish or Arabic. Most are Sunni Muslims. The Kurds were promised a nation of their own by world powers after World War I, but that was never granted. There were Kurdish rebellions in various countries over the following generations, and Kurds have faced state suppression of their language and culture. In Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, whose leaders have roots in the P.K.K. and follow Mr. Ocalan's ideology, control the northeastern part of the country. They have been backed for years by the United States and played a crucial role in defeating the Islamic State. But the fall of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December has left their future status unclear. They are clashing with Turkish-backed Syrian Arab rebels, and they remain outside the control of the new Syrian government in Damascus. Since the 1991 Gulf War, the largely Kurdish northern region of Iraq has been semiautonomous. The P.K.K. leadership is now based in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq. In recent years, Turkey has attacked the group and affiliated militias in Iraq and Syria, and has lobbied the Iraqi government to expel it. How did previous peace efforts fare? Multiple efforts to freeze or end the Turkey-P.K.K. conflict have been made, starting with a cease-fire in 1993. But all of them collapsed, often leading to greater bloodshed. Violence flared on and off until a round of peace talks began in 2011. At that time, Turkish intelligence officers met with Mr. Ocalan in prison to map out a plan for his fighters to disarm, and Kurdish politicians ferried messages between him and his associates in northern Iraq. But the process collapsed in mid-2015, with each side blaming the other for the failure. One of the conflict's most deadly phases followed, with pitched battles in cities in Turkey's southeast that killed more than 7,000 people, according to the International Crisis Group.
New York Times
12-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Kurdish Fighters Called a Truce, But Turkey Kept Up Lethal Strikes
Turkey's military has kept up deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq on fighters linked to the Kurdish insurgent group P.K.K. in the two weeks since the movement's founder called on his followers to lay down their arms and disband. The P.K.K. leadership, which is based in the Qandil Mountains of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, responded to the call by the founder, Abdullah Ocalan, by announcing a unilateral cease-fire on March 1. But they said that Turkey had to release Mr. Ocalan from prison to oversee the group's disarmament, a possibility that Turkish officials have not publicly entertained. Previous efforts to negotiate an end to the 40-year Turkey-P.K.K. conflict, which has killed more than 40,000 people, have failed. This time around, Turkish officials are releasing little information about the state of any talks. But it appears that the process is still moving forward, and analysts say Turkey is not discussing its progress to avoid a potential domestic backlash. What is the P.K.K.? For more than four decades, Turkey has been fighting an armed insurgency by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or P.K.K., a militant group that says it seeks greater rights for the country's Kurdish minority. The group began fighting the Turkish state in the early 1980s, originally seeking independence for the Kurds, who are believed to make up about 15 percent or more of Turkey's population. Starting from the mountains in eastern and southern Turkey, P.K.K. fighters attacked Turkish military bases and police stations, prompting harsh government responses. Later, the conflict spread to other parts of the country, with devastating P.K.K. bombings in Turkish cities that killed many civilians. Over the last decade, the Turkish military has routed P.K.K. forces from major Kurdish cities in southeastern Turkey, while using drones to kill its leaders and fighters, hindering its ability to organize and carry out attacks. Where do peace talks stand? Mr. Ocalan, the founder of the P.K.K., issued a public call to his fighters on Feb. 27 to lay down their weapons and disband. He said armed struggle should be replaced with peaceful political action to try to win more rights for Kurds — Turkey's largest ethnic minority. The P.K.K. leadership responded to the call by declaring a unilateral cease-fire. But Turkey did not reciprocate. Last week, a Turkish defense ministry spokesman, Rear Adm. Zeki Akturk, said that Turkey's military would 'continue its fight against terrorism with determination and resolve until there is not a single terrorist left.' Turkey considers all members of the P.K.K. and other affiliated groups 'terrorists.' Rear Admiral Ataturk said Turkey had killed 26 'terrorists' in Syria and Iraq in the previous week and nearly 1,500 since January. The P.K.K. has not corroborated those numbers. But its military wing said last week that in recent days, Turkey had carried out more than 800 strikes on the group's positions in northern Iraq using fighter jets, helicopters and artillery. The peace talks up until now have not produced a bilateral cease-fire, and Turkish leaders have vowed to keep up the military pressure on the P.K.K., which Turkey and the United States consider a terrorist organization. 'Naturally, to solve our problems we prioritize dialogue, reconciliation and talks,' President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this month. 'But if the hand we have extended is left in the air or bitten, we will keep our iron fist ready at all times.' What does Turkey want? Turkish officials have described their goal as a unilateral surrender by the P.K.K. Its fighters are expected to disarm, but there has been no public discussion of any concessions the government has offered in return or potential amnesties for people wanted for P.K.K.-related activity. 'The group understood the fact that it cannot achieve anything with terror, that it outlived its life span and has no choice but to dissolve itself,' said the defense ministry spokesman, Admiral Ataturk. 'The P.K.K. and all its related groups should end terrorist activities, dissolve themselves and surrender their weapons as they lay them down unconditionally.' Mr. Erdogan, too, said that Turkey would continue to use military force if the P.K.K. stalled or peace talks bogged down. 'We will continue our ongoing operations until the last terrorist is eliminated, without leaving a single stone on top of another and no heads atop any shoulders, if necessary,' he said. What does the P.K.K. want? The P.K.K. and groups associated with it have long sought greater rights for Turkey's Kurds, whose language and culture the state has suppressed since Turkey was formed after World War I. While some schools in Turkey now offer elective Kurdish language courses and some Kurdish language broadcasters have received state licenses, many Kurds would like these rights to be expanded. Last week, Mustafa Karasu, a senior P.K.K. official, said in a televised interview that the group was serious about disarmament but that Turkey had to stop striking P.K.K. positions. He went on to say that Mr. Ocalan needed more freedom to be able to help lead the group's transition. 'We will realize the transformation the leadership has set forth, the dissolution of the P.K.K., ending the armed struggle. No one should doubt that,' Mr. Karasu said. 'And naturally the state, the government, should do what is necessary about democratization without adopting any excuses.' Mr. Ocalan's call was preceded by talks that included Turkish officials, Mr. Ocalan, Iraqi Kurdish leaders and members of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish political party. Are Kurdish-led forces in Syria affected? Mr. Ocalan is also a figurehead for a Kurdish-led militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, which controls a stretch of territory in northeastern Syria. The Turkish government considers that militia an offshoot of the P.K.K. and publicly makes little distinction between them. But the United States views the two groups very differently, and for a decade has allied with the S.D.F. in fighting the jihadists of the Islamic State in Syria. On Monday, the leader of the S.D.F. reached an agreement with Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, to integrate the Kurdish-led force into the new Syrian state. Although Mr. Ocalan did not mention Syria specifically in his call for disarmament, some Syrian Kurdish leaders have said that the agreement falls in line with Mr. Ocalan's guidance.
New York Times
05-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
While Calm Reigns in Damascus, Battles in Syria's Northeast Rage On
In the Syrian capital, Damascus, the country's new leader has hosted a national unity conference and welcomed foreign dignitaries as crowds gather at cafes, speaking out freely for the first time in decades. But 400 miles away in northeastern Syria, a region beyond the control of the Damascus government, battles that have been going on for yearsare still raging. Drones buzz overhead day and night while airstrikes and artillery fire have forced thousands to flee their homes. The fight there pits two opposing militias against each other — the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the United States, and a predominantly Syrian Arab militia supported by Turkey. And the battle has only intensified since Islamist rebels ousted Syria's longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad, in early December. Much is at stake in this conflict, including the ability of the new interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, to unify the entire country, control its many religious and ethnic armed groups, and keep in check the terrorist group Islamic State, which has begun to gather strength again in parts of Syria. Neighboring countries worry that instability from any number of factions could spill across their borders. Also hanging in the balance is the fate of Syria's Kurds, an ethnic minority that makes up about 10 percent of the population. Over the years, the Kurds have carved out a semiautonomous region in northeastern Syria. One of the driving forces behind the fight in the northeast is the Turkish government's growing advantage over the Kurds, whom Turkey views as a threat both at home and in neighboring Syria because some violent Kurdish factions have pushed for a separate state. At home, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey last week scored a victory when the leader of the P.K.K., the Kurdish separatist movement that has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, called on his fighters to lay down their arms and disband. On Saturday, two days after the appeal by the leader, Abdullah Ocalan, the P.K.K. declared a cease-fire in Turkey. Turkey has also emerged in the past few months with greater influence in Syria because of its ties to the rebel group that overthrew Mr. al-Assad. The P.K.K.'s decisions over the past week have reverberated across northeastern Syria. Some fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces also have roots in the P.K.K., and Mazloum Abdi, the Kurdish leader of the Syrian force, has been a close follower of Mr. Ocalan's ideology. But addressing the P.K.K. leader's call to disarm, he said 'it has nothing to do with the S.D.F.' The new government in Damascus is pressuring the Syrian Democratic Forces to disarm and merge into a national military force, as it has demanded of every other armed group in the country. But so far, the Syrian Democratic Forces have been reluctant, fearing that doing so could threaten the autonomy of the Kurds in northeastern Syria. Mr. Abdi has said he wants his troops to become part of a new national Syrian army, but he also wants the force to be able to keep its weapons and continue to operate in northeast Syria. Mr. Erdogan, however, opposes any autonomy for the group. He recently referred to the Syrian Democratic Forces as 'separatist murderers,' suggesting that they were akin to the P.K.K. and said they should 'bid farewell to their weapons or they will be buried' with them. For Syria's neighbors and many others in the international community, the concern is that if Syria's Kurds are subsumed into a national force, they may no longer be able to keep the Islamic State in check. The Syrian Democratic Forces started fighting during Syria's 13-year civil war when the Islamic State took control of large parts of Syria and neighboring Iraq. They won crucial American military support — including weapons, funding and training — after proving that they were the most effective force on the ground in Syria when it came to fighting the Islamic State. The Kurdish-led force also guards the more than 20 prisons in northeastern Syria that hold about 9,500 hardened Islamic State fighters and nearby camps that contain about 40,000 family members of Islamic State fighters. 'Syria is the most important issue right now,' said Hoshyar Zebari, a former Iraqi foreign minister and a Kurd who remains in close touch with many regional leaders. Mr. Zebari said the Kurdish issue, particularly with regards to keeping the Islamic State at bay, was particularly important because instability tends to spill into neighboring countries. 'We know that whatever happens in Syria will not stop at the Syrian-Iraqi border,' said Mr. Zebari, noting that during the Syrian civil war, the conflict tipped into Iraq, with the Islamic State taking over much of northern Iraq. Millions of Syrian refugees and fled to neighboring countries and to Europe. The pressure both to join the new Syrian government and defend Kurdish autonomy within Syria has put Mr. Abdi in a tough position. He could accept the new Syrian government in hopes that this would guarantee some measure of long-term security for Syrian Kurds. But he also faces calls from some Kurdish factions to hold out for a semi-independent region. In a briefing with reporters last week, Mr. Abdi walked a fine line. He said the Kurds welcomed the new government in Damascus but also made clear that he was reluctant to dissolve his forces and, especially, to cede the fight against the Islamic State to a new and still untested Syrian army. 'The S.D.F. has a lot of experience in the fight against ISIS, and we have strengths to offer to the new Syrian army,' he said. It is also unclear whether Mr. al-Shara will be able to persuade the Turkish-backed militias to stop attacking the Kurds. Another big unknown is what the Trump administration will decide about U.S. involvement in Syria. During President Trump's first term, he tried to remove U.S. forces from Syria, reducing support for the Syrian Democratic Forces and risking an opening for Islamic State fighters to regain ground. The Pentagon pushed to retain a small U.S. force in Syria to carry out complex operations and to train and vet the Syrian Democratic Forces. But now there is fear among residents of the northeast that support is ebbing from many sides for the Kurdish-led forces in Syria. Both Kurdish and Arab residents of the area say they are weary of a conflict, but prospects for a peaceful resolution look remote. Khokh, a 40-year-old crossing the border from Syria into Iraq with her family, said that much of the worst fighting was far from their village, Deric, but that the buzz of Turkish surveillance drones was constant in the past few months. She asked to be identified by only her first name out of concerns for her security. 'We feel afraid every day when we hear the sound of the drones and the planes, and sometimes my children don't go outside for a week, because we are afraid even to send them to school,' she said. 'My 11-year old daughter won't even go to the bathroom alone.' Many do not trust that the new government in Damascus will be able to keep them safe from the Islamic State or will respect their ethnic background. In the past, Kurds have had fewer rights than Arabs, and some have not been granted citizenship. 'We do not know what the new government will do with us,' said Sheikh Khalil Elgaida Elhilali, 75, the leader of a mixed tribe of Syrian Arabs and Kurds. 'We want the war and fighting to stop.' For Syria's Arab neighbors, the most pressing concern is that the thousands of Islamic State fighters held in Kurdish-run prisons in northeastern Syria remain under tight guard and that the sprawling camps for their families are closely watched. If even a small number of the 9,500 Islamic State prisoners — many of whom are hardened fighters — were to break out of jail, it would represent a major threat. The prisons 'are time bombs,' Mr. Zebari said.
New York Times
01-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Kurdish Insurgent Group Declares Cease-Fire in Conflict With Turkey
The Kurdish guerrilla group that has been fighting a long-running insurgency against Turkey declared a cease-fire on Saturday, days after a call from its jailed leader to disarm and disband the organization which raised hopes of ending a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people over four decades. The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or P.K.K., said the cease-fire would begin immediately. It also called for Abdullah Ocalan, the P.K.K.'s founder and leader who has been in a Turkish prison for a quarter century, to be freed so he can oversee the group's dissolution. The P.K.K. announcement came two days after Mr. Ocalan said that the group had outlived its life-span and should dissolve itself, a rare message from a leader with broad influence over Kurdish fighters in Turkey, but also around the region, including in Syria and Iraq. The P.K.K. said in a statement carried by Firat News Agency, a P.K.K. -linked news site, that 'none of our forces will take armed action unless attacked.' If the P.K.K. does cease fighting, lay down its arms and disband, it would resolve a major domestic security threat and mark a political victory for Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But there are still many unanswered questions about who would monitor a truce or what would happen to fighters who lay down their arms — or whether the government has offered the Kurdish fighters anything in return. The Turkish government did not immediately comment on the P.K.K. statement or on the group's call for Mr. Ocalan to be released. Mr. Ocalan made his appeal after a series of talks between the main pro-Kurdish party in Turkey and Turkish officials. Mr. Erdogan said in January that the government had offered the P.K.K. no concessions. The P.K.K. began as a secessionist group that sought to create an independent state for Turkey's Kurdish minority, but more recently it has said it was seeking greater rights for Kurds inside Turkey. Many Turks see Mr. Ocalan as one of the country's biggest enemies. Turkey, the United States and other countries classify Mr. Ocalan as a terrorist and the P.K.K. as terror group for its attacks that have killed Turkish security forces and civilians. Mr. Ocalan was convicted in 1999 of leading an armed terrorist group. In recent years, Turkey's military has degraded the P.K.K.'s fighting abilities, which analysts say may have contributed to its willingness to stop fighting.
New York Times
28-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Deal With Kurds May Benefit Erdogan at Home and Abroad
By seeking a peace deal with Kurdish militants, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey is attempting something momentous that not only aims to end 40 years of violent insurgency inside Turkey but envisions ambitious change across the region. The call on Thursday by Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or P.K.K., for his militants to lay down their arms followed months of negotiations and was a well thought out answer to the challenges Mr. Erdogan faces, said Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. At home it could earn Mr. Erdogan the Kurdish support he needs for constitutional changes to give the Turkish leader — who has steadily expanded his power over more than 20 years — another run at the presidency. Farther afield, ending the conflict with Kurdish groups that are ranged across parts of Iraq, Syria and Turkey would release Turkey and its military of a huge burden. If Kurds in neighboring Syria follow suit, it has the potential to calm a longstanding regional conflict and help stabilize an allied, fledgling government in Damascus. 'This is a historic call,' Ms. Aydintasbas, said of Mr. Ocalan's appeal. The proposal 'has a lot to do with the geopolitical pressures building up in Turkey's neighborhood, creating a sense of insecurity for both Turks and Kurds,' she said. 'The chaotic start of the Trump administration and the uncertainty about Syria's future also seem to have made it evident to Ankara that it needs to consolidate on the home front,' Ms. Aydintasbas added, 'and there is no better way to do it than a deal with Kurds.' Mr. Ocalan's militant group, the P.K.K., 'will almost certainly' heed his appeal, she said. It has suffered militarily since attempting to fight urban battles in eastern Turkish cities in 2015 and has largely retreated to strongholds in the mountainous areas of Iraq. But the Kurdish forces in Syria, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or S.D.F., were boosted by training and equipment from the Pentagon as they joined the United States in its operations against the Islamic State in Syria. Turkey has long considered them a terrorist threat aimed at undermining security along its southern border. Turkey has close ties with the rebel movement Hayat Tahrir al Sham that seized control of Syria in December after ousting the longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad. Turkish officials have made it clear that removing or diluting the perceived Kurdish threat on its borders is a priority in its dealings with the new government in Damascus. Mazloum Abdi, the Kurdish leader of the S.D.F., is a close follower of Mr. Ocalan and will most likely heed his appeal to turn to peaceful, democratic change, Ms. Aydintasbas said. Mr. Abdi, in comments during an online news briefing on Thursday, said that Mr. Ocalan had informed him about the decision to lay down arms in a letter and had emphasized the value of peace and stability for the whole region. Mr. Abdi welcomed the initiative, saying that it would resolve Turkey's security concerns and ease the situation for his own forces in Syria. His priority was his own negotiations with the new government in Damascus, he said. The idea for a peace agreement was first floated in October by a close political ally of Mr. Erdogan's, the nationalist politician Devlet Bahceli. Mr. Erdogan openly backed peace negotiations with the Kurds a decade ago before they broke down disastrously with fierce fighting breaking out in Kurdish cities. Perhaps because of that and lingering uncertainties about whether the plan will stick, he has remained slightly aloof from the peace overtures this time. Neither he nor any of his cabinet reacted to Mr. Ocalan's call on Thursday. But his ambitions in the region and beyond are well known. After taking in more than three million Syrian refugees since the Arab Spring uprising of 2011, he had been a strong supporter of the rebel groups fighting against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and he still enjoys close ties with those groups now that they are in government. At the same time, he has extended Turkey's military and diplomatic reach into Africa and has offered Syria military training assistance for its army and air support by proposing the positioning of units of the Turkish air force in Syrian bases. One of Turkey's concerns is to curb interference from other countries into Syria, including Israel, which has advanced troops into parts of southern Syria and made overtures to the Syrian Kurds. Mr. Erdogan will be also calculating for political gains at home from peace with the Kurds, who represent an important political force that has sided with a coalition of opposition parties against Mr. Erdogan. The Kurds have already made clear that they are expecting political and legal safeguards in any deal. They would be likely to demand the release of political prisoners and changes in terrorism legislation and constitutional amendments, Ms. Aydintasbas said. A deal with the Kurds could allow for constitutional changes that would remove ethnic divisions and give Kurds a devolution of power. It could also give Mr. Erdogan another run at the presidency, his former prime minister Binali Yildirim said in comments made in a speech in the city of Izmir, reported by Turkish media Friday. 'We are surrounded by instability, dangers and threats,' Mr. Yildirim said. 'For this, stability, trust and, most importantly, a strong leader are needed. Therefore, the way should be opened for our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to run for president again. The new constitution should also foresee this.'
