The Claim of Openness: Turkey’s Approach to the Peace Process

Abstract

After nine decades of denial, military confrontation and securitisation of the Kurdish problem, the AKP government outspokenly addressed the Kurdish question, wanting to change the course of Turkish-Kurdish conflict by introducing the notion of Kurdish opening. Despite the claims of the founder of the Turkish Republic Kemal Ataturk of reconciliation within his country and with the world, Turkey still witnesses conflicts and tensions with all the countries of the region and domestically, with various secular and religious factions, and with the Kurds in particular. Since the establishment of Turkey as a modern state, peace and prosperity have not clearly been seen. Military coups have frequently overthrown civilian governments in the political arena. One of the very visible and complicated obstacles to peace and prosperity is the Kurdish problem. After three decades of costly war between the state and the Kurdish movement, in the AKP era for the first time, public negotiations between the two took place. The Kurdish movement became invested in this relatively peaceful environment and started to promote cultural nationalism on a large scale. Suddenly, however, the state abruptly ceased the peace process with representatives of the Kurdish movement and detained thousands of its activists. Some southeastern areas have faced destruction, and about one million civil habitants have been displaced. This article seeks to explain why the state has returned to its old policy of security and military approach, whilst in the past few years it had repeatedly claimed that it was possible to deal with the Kurdish question through peace and reconciliation. The research tries to examine the complex relationship between the Turkish state and the Kurdish movement.