Kurdish–Turkish conflict

Time has proven that the involvement of any third party would further complicate Turkey’s Kurdish peace process instead of facilitating it, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, citing the failure of a series of meetings known as the “Oslo talks” as one result of such involvement.

An accord to end Turkey’s decades-old Kurdish issue must be completed before the general elections scheduled for June 2015, according to People’s Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş.

“The Kurdish issue cannot shoulder another election. Considering the general trends in the Middle East, this should happen,” he said Nov. 20.

The ongoing Kurdish peace process is certainly Turkey’s most important issue and deserves in-depth analysis, particularly after the Oct. 6-7 uprising of Kurds that left more than 30 people dead. Those events showed how a collapse of the negotiations could affect peace and comfort across the country.

Bouncing back from the verge of total collapse, the “Kurdish opening” is apparently getting equipped with new gear: direct talks with Abdullah Öcalan, the separatist chieftain serving an enforced life term at the İmralı Island prison.

The Turkish government has categorically closed the door on the involvement of any third party in the peace process, which it labels as its brainchild.

Selahattin Demirtaş, the co-leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), has urged the government to accelerate the Kurdish resolution process, underlining that delaying the process would result in more provocations.

A number of key European countries are cracking down on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said.

Turkey’s government and the opposition HDP are seeking ways to lower the tension and put the Kurdish peace process back on track The government and the Peoples’ Democratic’ Party (HDP) are seeking ways to mend moribund talks on solving the longstanding Kurdish issue following days of tension between the two over the matter.

Signals coming from both the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) indicate that neither is happy with the current state of the dialogue process, initiated by the Turkish government two years ago in pursuit of a political solution to the chronic problem.

There was a detectable concern within the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a party primarily focused on the Kurdish Issue, on Nov. 7 regarding the future of the dialogue between the Turkish government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in pursuit of a political solution for Turkey’s chronic problem.