Erdoan's collaborators refuse a new peace process

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The advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Mehmet Uçum, denied on October 18 the existence of a new peace process on the Kurdish question, affirming that it had not produced results ten years ago.

In a statement on social media, Uçum commented on recent developments regarding a possible new peace process.

“There cannot be a peace process in Türkiye similar to the previous one or with a new version. These processes belong to the past, to history. The claim that this initiative is due to the aggression of Zionism is completely absurd and demonstrates a lack of awareness of Turkey's power,” Uçum said.

“The state does not retry the methods it has tried and failed to achieve results, (but) finds other effective methods,” he said, referring to “strong political and military strategies and effective”.

Uçum claimed that the new reconciliation efforts of the government and the MHP towards the pro-Kurdish People's Equality and Democracy (DEM) party were motivated by three reasons.

“The first is to give an opportunity to those within the DEM who express the demand to 'save us from the politics of terror and violence'. The second consists of offering the DEM the possibility of freeing itself from the tutelage of terrorism. The third is to eliminate terrorist supervision within Parliament, which is made effective through the DEM,” he stressed.

He also threatened that if the DEM party “does not take advantage of the opportunity to get rid of the terrorist tutelage offered to it socially and politically, or if it abuses this opportunity, then the terrorist tutelage exercised by the DEM in Parliament will be threatened.” be eliminated by law. It is also an unavoidable reality.

Uçum also said that these attempts “have nothing to do with paving the way for President Erdoğan's candidacy through a new constitution.”

Similarly, ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Vice Chairman Efkan Ala said on October 17 that he had no plans to meet or negotiate with the imprisoned PKK leader , Abdullah Ocalan.

“The problem is different and the solution to the problem is different (than 10 years ago). We don't have to do the same thing every time. There is a Kurdish channel (run by the state). These (problems) have been overcome. At some point during these processes, the Middle East was devastated. If Turkey had not undertaken these reforms, it would have been defeated by the projects that wanted to transform it into Iraq and Syria,” he said.

What happened?

On October 1, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), a government ally, Devlet Bahçeli, shook hands with DEM party deputies during the opening session of Parliament.

Later, he “invited” the DEM party to “become a party of Turkey”. Previously, he had repeatedly called for the DEM party to be shut down, accusing it of collaborating with the banned PKK.

Later, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan supported Bahçeli and spoke of a new constitution to resolve the Kurdish question.

Some critics have said that Erdoğan may want to reconcile with the DEM party so he can run for president again, as the current constitution limits the presidency to two five-year terms.

The outlawed PKK launched its first attack in 1984, and the 1990s saw intense conflict between the PKK and the Turkish military, particularly in the country's southeastern region. Erdoğan's government began taking steps regarding the Kurdish issue in 2009 and launched a “peace process” between 2013 and 2015 with the armed organization.

Nevertheless, the peace process failed in 2015 and intense armed conflict erupted in southeastern Turkey until 2016. Dozens of civilians died and many cities were demolished during this period.