By Karen Harutyunyan
“Ankara can make some gestures of goodwill but never fundamental moves which would set the constitutional, legal, and political conditions of an equal citizenship,” says Cengiz Aktar, a prominent Turkish intellectual and political scientist in exile. His statement comes in response to Abdullah Öcalan’s recent call for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to disarm and dissolve, a move hailed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a “historic step” toward a “terror-free” Turkey.
On February 27, Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK, declared that the group had “completed its life” and urged its dissolution, potentially signaling an end to a decades-long conflict that claimed approximately 50,000 lives of which 40,000 were Kurds. Öcalan asserted that the current political climate was conducive to peace. Aktar, known for his critical analysis of Turkish politics and minority rights, offers a more cautious perspective.
Also read: How should Öcalan’s call for peace be interpreted?
According to Aktar, Öcalan’s call for disarmament must be viewed in the broader context of Turkish state strategy. Since Öcalan’s capture in 1999 and imprisonment in 2000, Ankara has approached him three times—in 2000-2004, 2007-2011, and 2013-2015—always with the same objective: pressuring Öcalan to end the armed struggle and push for the PKK’s dissolution. “The responsible authority behind the Öcalan letter is more the Ankara regime than the author,” Aktar argues, noting that genuine negotiations require free and equal partners, a condition not met in this scenario.
In previous initiatives, Öcalan linked the Kurdish issue’s resolution to the PKK’s demobilization, proposing a holistic framework. However, there is a stark departure from this approach in the current process. “There is no connection between the disarmament of the PKK and any lasting solution of the Kurdish issue,” Aktar explains. The new appeal assumes the Kurdish issue will be resolved within a vaguely defined and unlikely “democratic republic,” without setting the structural changes necessary for true equality.
Reactions to Öcalan’s call have been mixed. While Erdoğan praised the announcement, Turkey’s nationalist IYI Party voiced skepticism, suggesting ulterior motives. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), associated with the PKK, expressed support for the disarmament call but clarified that it did not apply to their forces in Syria. Nechirvan Barzani, President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, welcomed the call and offered assistance in the peace process.
Aktar also underscores the broader geopolitical dimensions. Ankara’s ultimate goal, he says, is the dissolution of the roughly 100,000-strong NATO-trained army of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). Though Öcalan’s letter did not address this, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi noted that the call only pertained to Turkey. Meanwhile, negotiations between AANES and Syria’s new authorities over integrating Kurdish forces into the Syrian Army—a move Ankara opposes—are ongoing.
When asked about the involvement of Devlet Bahçeli, leader of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Aktar dismisses the idea that Bahçeli acted independently. “Speculations pointing at a unilateral move by Bahçeli are pointless knowing the rock-solid bond between him and Erdoğan,” he says. Despite this supposed “overture,” neither the MHP nor Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) have shifted from their assimilationist stance. Turkish Kurds can only become “first-class citizens” if they accept assimilation, Aktar warns.
Aktar remains deeply skeptical of any potential democratic breakthrough. “In political theory as well as practice, we haven’t seen an authoritarian or totalitarian regime evolving toward democracy,” he explains. The Turkish regime’s authoritarian nature and the characteristics of its support base make it an unlikely candidate for genuine democratization. Historically, the Kurdish issue has been a core barrier to Turkey’s democratization, but the current process, he argues, offers no significant democratic advancement. The entrenched political paradigm continues to reject equal rights for non-Muslim and non-Turk citizens.
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