By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK | 22 January 2026 (IDN) — Nearly a decade after Turkey’s failed coup attempt of July 2016, the country’s political landscape has been transformed beyond recognition. What began as a night of grave uncertainty for the Turkish state has become the long day of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s consolidation of power—an authoritarian restructuring that has reshaped institutions, narrowed civil liberties, and placed entire communities, particularly the Kurds, under intensified repression and persecution.
The persecution of the Kurds
Perhaps nowhere has Erdoğan’s nationalist authoritarian turn been more devastating than in his treatment of Turkey’s Kurdish population.
In the early 2010s, Erdoğan surprised both domestic and international observers by launching a peace process with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). For the first time in decades, there appeared to be a genuine prospect of a negotiated solution to a deeply entrenched conflict. Kurdish language, culture, and political expression seemed poised to gain mainstream legitimacy.
That hope was short-lived. By 2015, the peace process collapsed—by Erdoğan’s own design.
What followed was a level of repression unmatched in the post-1980 period. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which emerged as a major parliamentary force in 2015, was relentlessly targeted. Thousands of party members were arrested, and the state seized dozens of HDP-run municipalities—a de facto dismantling of Kurdish political representation through legal and administrative means. Kurdish identity itself became suspect, while Kurdish political engagement was routinely equated with terrorism.
One particularly egregious episode was the siege of Cizre from December 2015 to February 2016, during clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants. Civilians were trapped for weeks without adequate food, water, or medical care—a harrowing case of collective punishment. In Diyarbakir, elected Kurdish mayors were removed and replaced by government appointees, grossly undermining the political rights of the Kurdish population.
A renewed—yet fragile—effort toward peace
Following a historic call in February 2025 by Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK, for his organisation to disarm and dissolve, dialogue between the Turkish state and Kurdish representatives entered a fragile new phase—marked by conditional reciprocity and unresolved political demands.
The PKK has taken concrete steps. It announced a ceasefire in March 2025, formally renounced armed struggle in May, staged a symbolic weapons-burning ceremony in July, and declared a complete withdrawal from Turkish soil in October 2025. Senior PKK commanders now insist they have fulfilled all measures set by Öcalan and will take no further actions unless Ankara reciprocates.
The Kurdish side’s core demands are explicit and limited: the unconditional release of Öcalan and constitutional recognition of Kurdish identity and political rights—not independence—within Turkey. PKK leaders warn that peace will stall without these steps, arguing that “as long as the leadership is inside [prison], the Kurdish people cannot be free.”
Ankara’s refusal to reciprocate
The Turkish government has publicly welcomed Öcalan’s disarmament call as a “historic step” that could “tear down the wall of terror.” Yet Ankara continues to frame the process as a surrender rather than a negotiated settlement. It refuses direct talks with the PKK leadership in exile and insists that reconciliation must occur strictly on Turkey’s terms.
Erdoğan and his far-right ally Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), initiated the process primarily for domestic political calculations—seeking Kurdish parliamentary support for constitutional changes and improved regional optics—rather than as a genuine effort to end more than four decades of bloodshed.
The pro-Kurdish DEM Party has played an active role in facilitating dialogue, but the process remains acutely vulnerable. Öcalan himself has warned of “coup mechanics” that sabotaged earlier peace efforts. Meanwhile, the government has yet to outline any concrete political reforms, legal guarantees, or democratic roadmap beyond expecting the PKK’s dissolution.
A historic opportunity at risk
After 41 years of violent conflict that claimed more than 40,000 lives on both sides, the dialogue has reached a dangerous impasse. Although the Kurdish movement has renounced armed resistance, Ankara continues to refuse the institutional changes necessary for a durable political settlement.
The Kurds are not seeking independence. Yet Erdoğan still refuses to accept a fundamental democratic principle: that the Kurds constitute a distinct ethnic group with the inherent right to live their lives freely—speaking their language, practising their culture, music, dance, and traditions—so long as they abide by the laws of the country to which they remain wholly committed.
Nearly 15 per cent of Turkey’s population—approximately 16 million people—are ethnic Kurds. They will not rest until their human and ethnic rights are recognised. But Erdoğan, blinded by nationalism, appears poised to miss yet another historic opportunity—demonstrating his folly even when faced with the real prospect of ending the most debilitating domestic conflict in modern Turkish history.
Dr Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Centre for Global Affairs at New York University. He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies. [IDN-InDepthNews]