1. Jailed Kurdish rebel leader presents peace process proposals
25 June 2013 / ReutersJailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan said the peace process to end three decades of conflict had entered a second stage with his fighters' withdrawal from Turkey and he had presented the Turkish government with new proposals. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas began pulling out of Turkish territory to bases in northern Iraq last month in the first stage of a deal between Ocalan and the state to end an insurgency in which 40,000 people have been killed.
During the second stage, Ocalan expects the government to enact reforms to boost the rights of the Kurdish minority, which makes up some 20 percent of Turkey's 76 million population. Ocalan, held on an island jail south of Istanbul, met on Monday with a delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). In a statement issued by the BDP on Tuesday, he said he was determined to push ahead with the process.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/25/us-turkey-kurds-idUSBRE95O0AK20130625
2. Öcalan: Democratic solution process entered the second phase
25 June 2013 / ANFKurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan held his seventh meeting with a delegation of the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) on Monday. Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş and parliamentary group deputy chair Pervin Buldan took part in yesterday's delegation meeting the Kurdish leader. BDP headquarters announced the message Öcalan conveyed to the public in a written statement released on Tuesday. According to the statement, Öcalan said the following:
"First of all, I extend my greetings and loves to everyone. The democratic solution process we are involved in is continuing. We have entered the second phase by now. I have conveyed to the Turkish state our proposals about how the second phase will progress[…]”
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/ocalan-democratic-solution-process-entered-the-second-phase.htm
3. BDP deputies discuss peace package with Ocalan
25 June 2013 / KurdpressThe pro- Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co- chair Selahattin Demirtas and the party’s Igdir deputy Pervin Buldan discussed a peace package in a Friday meeting with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan in Imrali Island.
The discussed package has been delivered to Turkey Judiciary Ministry and deputy Prime Minister some days ago. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is due to discuss and announce its stance towards the 25- article package in the coming days. Speaking with reporters after meeting Ocalan, Demirtas said the PKK leader has saluted all Kurdish media activists and announced the second round of peace talks will start after the complete pull-out of PKK members from Turkey soil.
The BDP leader further added the content of the meeting would be released to the media after it would be discussed in a joint meeting between the leaders of BDP and Democratic Society Congress (DTK).
http://tinyurl.com/nblo395
4. New phase of peace talks begin: BDP
21 June 2013 / HurriyetThe Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which takes an active role in recent efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem, announced that it had the first talks of the second round of the process with the government. The first phase was described as the withdrawal of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants from Turkish soil as the second phase was to consist of steps to be taken by the government. “We have had the first official negotiations of the solution process,” BDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said in Diyarbakır June 21, addressing party members. “The government says it has preparations. The issue may be made public next week,” he said.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/new-phase-of-peace-talks-begin-bdp.aspx?pageID=238&nID=49248&NewsCatID=338
5. Turkey faces pressure to advance Kurdish militant peace process
21 June 2013 / ReutersTurkey's main pro-Kurdish party is pressing Ankara to advance a peace process with Kurdish militants before a parliament recess, drawing a government accusation on Friday that it was exploiting unrelated unrest to extract concessions.
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters began pulling out of Turkish territory to bases in northern Iraq last month under a deal between the state and the group's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan to end a conflict which has killed 40,000.
In exchange for that withdrawal, the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) now expects the government to enact reforms to boost the rights of the Kurdish minority, which makes up some 20 percent of Turkey's 76 million-strong population.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/21/us-turkey-kurds-idUSBRE95K0HT20130621
6. PKK will be legally engaged in politics, BDP co-chair predicts
24 June 213 / KurdpressKurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Gultan Kisanak has predicted that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) will become legally involved in politics if the settlement process will continue. Addressing a group of demonstrators in Diyarbakir, Kisanak said if the government talk with Abdullah Ocalan brings peace, then the state should open the doors of politics for the PKK members to legally attent in politics.
“If democratization and peace are settled in this country, then we could get into a normalization process in which the PKK will legally be involved in politics," she went on to say. Holding a press conference in the Qandil Mountains -- a PKK stronghold in Iraqi self-ruling region of Kurdistan - on April 25, PKK land commander chief Murat Karayilan and several of his deputies officially declared that their members would withdraw from Turkey.
http://tinyurl.com/nustmn5
7. Erdoğan: We have no reform package on the agenda
26 June 2013 / ANFThe meeting between Wise People commission and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ended in the evening, lasting shorter than expected as Erdoğan listened only to the presidents of the delegations on the grounds that he had another program for late today. According to the information ANF obtained, Erdoğan made no mention of his AK Party's projects about the ongoing resolution process. Referring to the withdrawal of Kurdish guerrillas from Turkish borders, Erdoğan reportedly said that “Only 10-15 percent of the groups has finalized the withdrawal, with the rest creating problems for still being present in their areas”. Erdoğan claimed that Kurdish guerrillas detained people in some regions.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/erdogan-we-have-no-reform-package-on-the-agenda.htm
8. Turkey protests 'must not derail peace process with Kurdish rebels'
24 June 2013 / GuardianMass demonstrations against the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayip Erdoğan, should not be allowed to derail talks with Kurdish rebels, Britain's roving peace negotiator, Jonathan Powell, has said. The former diplomat, who is lending his support to the process aimed at ending the 30-year conflict, said it would be a tragedy if civil rights confrontations with the Turkish government knocked the dialogue off course. Powell, who was Tony Blair's chief-of-staff and helped steer the Northern Ireland peace process to final success, has met the head of Turkey's intelligence services, Hakan Fidan, and senior officials from the ruling AK party (AKP) in Ankara to share his experience as a negotiator.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/24/turkey-protests-peace-process-kurdish-rebels
9. Karayılan calls on EU delist PKK as a terrorist organization
23 June 2013 / ANFIn an interview to German daily Die Presse's correspondent Wieland Schneder, KCK (Kurdish Communities Union) Executive Council President Murat Karayılan called on the EU to remove the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) from the list of terrorist organizations. Karayılan remarked that the Turkish government must make the next step in the ongoing solution process, noting that the first phase, the withdrawal of Kurdish guerrillas from Turkish borders, is about to end by now.
Karayılan commented Gezi protests as a manifestation of Turkey's need for democracy, adding that he didn't think the protests would have a negative effect on the peace process in search of a democratic solution to the Kurdish question. “I am of the opinion that the public demand for democratization should be united with Kurdish people's demand for peace. There are no doubt nationalist circles among the demonstrators taking part in Gezi protests. This movement could therefore lead up to wrong ways should the protestors give the control away to these circles”.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/karayilan-calls-on-eu-delist-pkk-as-a-terrorist-organization.htm
10. Northern Kurdistan Conference: Öcalan's freedom a must for a solution
17 June 2013 / ANFThe two day “Northern Kurdistan Conference for Solution and Unity” in the main Kurdish city Amed has ended on Sunday. The conference was organized as a part of the four conferences Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan suggested should take place in the ongoing process in search of a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question.
The final declaration of the conference called on the government to take more sincere steps for the solution of the Kurdish question and demanded Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan's freedom to ensure a healthy progress in the solution process. Reading the Turkish side of the final declaration, which was released in Kurdish as well, DTK (Democratic Society Congress) co-chair Aysel Tuğluk underlined that "the conference which was attended by Kurdistani identities has been a significant step serving for a free future for Kurdistan".
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/northern-kurdistan-conference-ocalan-s-freedom-a-must-for-a-solution.htm<http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/northern-kurdistan-conference-ocalan-s-freedom-a-must-for-a-solution.htm>
11. IHD: Four dead, 7681 wounded, 2841 detained in Gezi protests
25 June 2013 / InfoTurkHuman Rights Association (IHD) head office has released a report on the violations of rights witnessed during Gezi Park protests across the country from 27 May to 24 June. According to the report, 7681 people were wounded, five killed and 2841 detained and among them 70 were remanded in custody as a result of police interventions in the protests. Speaking at the press conference IHD held for the release of the report, IHD Chairperson Öztürk Türkdoğan strongly criticized the release of the police officer who shot protestor Ethem Sarısülük on the head using a rubber bullet in capital Ankara on 1 June. Türkdoğan commented the court's decision as unacceptable. The report by IHD, read by Türkdoğan, included the figures compiled by Turkish Doctors' Union (TTB), according to which four people were killed and 7832 others were wounded in protests in 13 cities by 20 June.
http://www.info-turk.be/418.htm#IHD
12. Turkish police break up protest, PM lambasts opponents
22 June 2013 / ReutersTurkish riot police fired water cannon to disperse thousands of anti-government demonstrators in Istanbul on Saturday, as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan castigated those behind protests he said had played into the hands of Turkey's enemies.
The latest unrest in Taksim Square punctured six days of relative calm in Turkey's biggest city, although it was a long way from matching the ferocity of previous clashes there and in other cities that began more than three weeks ago.
Demonstrators threw carnations at a phalanx of officers carrying shields who slowly advanced towards them, flanked by water cannon, to clear the square.
"Police, don't betray your people!" activists shouted after they had been scattered into streets leading to Taksim. Witnesses said police also used teargas to disperse protesters in nearby streets in cat-and-mouse clashes.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/22/us-turkey-protests-idUSBRE95L0BE20130622
13. Turkish hacker group Redhack claims responsibility for all tweets about Gezi protests
20 June 2013 / HurriyetHacker group Redhack has claimed responsibility for all tweets that were posted about the Taksim Gezi Park protests after the government announced that an investigation into the matter had been launched. “The AKP [Justice and Development Party] is going to conduct an investigation. We have posted all tweets and hacked thousands of people’s computers. Don’t take on the innocent ones, we are here,” Redhack wrote on its Twitter account. “All accounts that retweet Redhack, write about Redhack, or organize the resistance, were hacked by us.” Following the message by the group, Twitter users began to announce that they were hacked by Redhack with a hashtag “#redhacktarafındanhacklendik” (#wewerehackedbyredhack).
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-hacker-group-redhack-claims-responsibility-for-all-tweets-about-gezi-protests.aspx?pageID=238&nID=49137&NewsCatID=341
14. Defiant Turkish Demonstrators "Finding New Ways to Protest" in Face of Relentless State Crackdown
19 June 2013 / DemocracyNowThe Turkish government is threatening to send armed troops into cities to quell the ongoing anti-government protests that have continued despite an increasingly violent state crackdown. On Tuesday, Turkish police arrested 87 people in a series of raids targeting those suspected of participating in weeks of anti-government rallies. The latest demonstrations include acts of passive resistance inspired by performance artist Erdem Gündüz aka "The Standing Man," who attracted international attention for standing quietly in Taksim Square for eight hours to protest the police crackdown. We go to Istanbul to speak with Nazan Üstündag, an activist and scholar who has been involved in the Taksim Square protests since they began late last month. "People are finding new ways to protest," Üstündag says. "We’re coming together discussing what we’re going to do next, how we’re going to organize and voice our democratic demands."
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/6/19/defiant_turkish_demonstrators_finding_new_ways
15. Foreign attachés wear red in Ankara, to support Gezi in absence of Turkish gov’t officials
21 June 2013 / HurriyetSpouses of some attachés as well as some female attachés from various embassies in Ankara displayed their support for the Gezi protests by wearing red dresses while attending the annual reception of the British Embassy. The event was hosted by British Ambassador to Turkey David Reddaway to celebrate the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II and the United Kingdom Armed Forces Day, held on June 20, and was not attended by any officials from the government. “We wanted to support the Turkish people in the Gezi Park events,” the ladies in red said while posing for the photographers, making a reference to a lady wearing a red dress who became a symbol of the protests after she was photographed being exposed to tear gas in the early days of the protests in Gezi Park, marking the disproportionate police force used to crush the protests.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/foreign-attachs-wear-red-in-ankara-to-support-gezi-in-absence-of-turkish-govt-officials.aspx?pageID=238&nID=49233&NewsCatID=338
16. International intellectuals call on Turkey to desist from its repression of popular protest
19 June 2013 / ANFIn a written statement on the repression of the Gezi Park protests across the country in Turkey, dozens of international intellectuals, inluding Judith Butler, Tarıq Ali, Wendy Brown, Slavoj Zizek, Etienne Balibar, called for the immediate end to the appalling state violence. The joint statement by intellectuals said they deplored the recent crackdown of the Turkish government on its own citizens, the clearly unjustified use of tear gas, acts of force, gas canisters and smoke bombs that have resulted in a vast number of injuries, imperiling the lives of those who seek to exercise their basic freedoms of assembly and protest. This assault of the Turkish government on its own people -the statement read- constitutes an attack on democratic principles and a departure from legitimate methods of governance —we unequivocally oppose such tactics of intimidation and state violence.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/international-intellectuals-call-on-turkey-to-desist-from-its-repression-of-popular-protest.htm<http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/international-intellectuals-call-on-turkey-to-desist-from-its-repression-of-popular-protest.htm>
17. KNK calls for mobilization for Rojava
11 June 2013 / ANFIn a written statement calling attention to the crisis in Afrin and Kobani, caused by attacks against western Kurdistan and the migration from the region, Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) called on the people of Kurdistan to mobilize for the protection of Rojava. KNK pointed out that exploitative powers, those who do not want Kurds to have a political status in the Middle East, continued attacking the people in western Kurdistan with an aim to break their struggle for autonomous political, military and administrative structures. KNK remarked that exploitative powers organized paramilitary groups and sent them to the region of Kurdistan after providing them with all kinds of logistic support. “Since the beginning of the new year, the Turkish state has been sending gangs and paramilitary groups into the cities of western Kurdistan which are at the same time suffering from bombardments by the army of the Syrian regime. These Turkey-backed groups which are behind the attacks targeting Serekaniye, Aleppo and Afrin, are trying to sabotage the stability Kurds have achieved in their region”, KNK said.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/knk-calls-for-mobilization-for-rojava.htm
18. Arab Islamist rebels, Kurds clash in northern Syria
20 June 2013 / ReutersIslamist rebels have cut access to a Kurdish area in northern Syria and clashed with Kurdish nationalist PKK fighters whom they accuse of backing President Bashar al-Assad, sources on both sides said on Thursday. The confrontation threatens to open a new front in Syria's 27-month-old civil war, in which Kurds, who form about 10 percent of the population, have so far played a limited role. Fighting erupted overnight on the edge of Ifrin, a rugged, olive-growing area on the Turkish border, the sources said. Four people were killed, bringing to at least 30 the death toll from battles and assassinations in the last few days. Dozens more have been taken in tit-for-tat kidnappings, the sources said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/20/us-syria-crisis-kurds-idUSBRE95J0TH20130620
19. Peace and Democracy Conference in Europe to open on 29 June
26 June 2013 / ANFThe Peace and Democracy Conference in Europe, the 3rd conference to debate and decide on a working plan for the democratization of Turkey and the resolution of the Kurdish question, will be held on 29-30 June 2013 in Brussels.
The conference has been organized as part of the four conferences Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan proposed as a necessity for the ongoing process of talks aimed at a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question. Öcalan said the conferences were of importance in terms of highlighting the opinions and proposals of all relevant circles about the resolution process. The first two Peace and Democracy conferences were held on 25-26 May in Ankara and 15-16 June in Amed (Diyarbakır). Following the conference in Brussels, the fourth one will take place in Hewler in the coming months.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/peace-and-democracy-conference-in-europe-to-open-on-29-june.htm
20. Kurdish-Swedish man arrested in Bulgaria on Turkey's request
21 June 2013 / eKurdAccording to Swedish media, a Kurdish man from Sweden, Halef Tak has been arrested in Bulgaria. On Monday the 51-year-old Halef landed in Bulgaria with his wife and three children to spend their summer vacation there; they were instead met by armed military police who arrested Halef. According to the family, Halef Tak was politically active in the Kurdish struggle in Turkey in the late 1980′s but because of persecution,www.ekurd.net he and his family had to flee to Sweden in 1989. Halef’s nephew, 22-year-old Mazlum Tak, said to the Swedish paper: "My uncle has not been able to travel to Turkey for 25 years for political reasons. They have told him several times that if he gets caught, he risks 20 years in jail or life imprisonment."
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/6/turkey4709.htm
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
21. Margaret Owen: Blogs from Istanbul during fifth KCK lawyers trial hearing
24 June 213 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignMargaret Owen OBE, along with barrister Melanie Gingell and solicitor Ali Has, has continued her excellent work as international trial monitor at the latest hearing of the KCK trial of 46 Kurdish lawyers, which took place last Thursday. Below are a series of blog posts written by Margaret about the ongoing protests in Istanbul, and of course about the latest developments in the trial.http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/margaret-owen-blogs-from-istanbul-during-fifth-kck-lawyers-trial-hearing/
22. Istanbul revolt suppressed
20 June 2013 / Communist Party of Great BritainIt is now time to prepare for the next step by learning the lessons. The police first cleared Taksim Square, and then the demonstrators were forced out of the adjacent Gezi Park, finally ending the revolt. Compared to what the Turkish police and security forces are capable of, generally a controlled level of force was used before the international media. However, when the clashes continued in the narrow side streets away from the cameras, the true face of police brutality became more apparent. Here I can almost hear readers’ objections: ‘What are you talking, man? We have seen in the social media the level of violence used against demonstrators.’ That is indeed true, but what I am pointing out is that even our readers could not imagine what the police and gendarmerie, and the special army units waiting behind the scene, are capable of when they are ordered to put down a revolt.
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/967/istanbul-revolt-suppressed
23. Erdogan, Taksim Square And the Kurdish Peace
24 June 2013 / Al MonitorIt has been 10 days since police evicted the protesters from the Gezi Park adjacent to the square with an unprecedented pepper gas attack, but Turkey is still living with the trauma of the first three weeks of June.
Erdogan seems to be on a national tour. He orates at least once a day but, as if playing the same tape, he is repeating the same sentences. More than 80% of his speeches are about what the Gezi Park protests triggered from the center of Istanbul and that spread to 79 out of 81 provinces of the country. Last weekend he spoke at Kayseri in the center of Anatolia, Samsun on the Black Sea and Erzurum in the east.
While addressing the graduating cadets at Ankara Police Academy on Monday, June 24, he praised the police — who have been much criticized for disproportionate use of force — and described the events as an "epic of police heroism." One day before, at Erzurum, Erdogan said he had personally ordered the police to clear Gezi Park from "forces of occupation."
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/erdogan-taksim-gezi-protests-brutality-akp-eu-membership.html
24. Turkey-Kurdish Peace Process on Hold?
20 June 2013 / Al MonitorWe’re back to square one again, questioning whether Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has thought all the steps forward till the last one before launching the negotiations with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan. The public is still not fully aware of the depth of these talks, or the possible promises given on their behalf, but there are growing concerns that this process may soon be disrupted. Murat Karayilan, the military leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) based in Northern Iraq, for example, questions whether Erdogan comprehends what it means to engage in direct talks with Ocalan: “Look, the prime minister is even criticizing the nationalists while talking about the Gezi [Park] events. He says, 'How could you accept seeing Ataturk’s and a terrorist leader’s photographs next to each other?'” he told Firat News Agency yesterday [June 19]. “If you’re going to resolve the Kurdish issue, aren’t you supposed to help the nationalists accept him? If those nationalist circles have really internalized Leader Apo [popular name for imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan], isn’t this a good thing?
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/contents/articles/opinion/2013/06/turkish-kurdish-peace-process-hold.html#ixzz2WsZT4Yqm
25. Could the Turkish Uprising Be a Breakthrough for the Country's Kurds?
25 June 2013 / ViceThe fallout from the protests in Turkey isn't all bad. Unthinkable only three weeks ago, the demonstrations have begun to unite Turkey's Kurds—both those in Istanbul and traveling there from the east of the country—with a broad cross-section of Turkish society under a collective banner of anger against the government and its prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Years of clashing with riot police in the east of the country has taught the Kurds a couple of things about protest tactics, and their know-how came in handy the weekend before last when Gezi Park was forcibly evicted. Sidenç is a Kurdish 20-something from Diyarbakir the major city in the Kurdish part of Turkey. "Most English-speaking people call me Angel, so call me that," she said. And the name is fitting; she's a strikingly beautiful girl from the eastern heartlands of Turkey's Kurdish population who's flown in with her equally striking friends to support the anti-government occupation.
http://www.vice.com/read/talking-to-turkeys-kurds-at-occupy-gezi <http://www.vice.com/read/talking-to-turkeys-kurds-at-occupy-gezi>
26. On the Origins and Possible Consequences of the Gezi Protests
25 June 2013 / Research TurkeyWhen the AK Party was established, it promised to the society economic and political stability. It was these promises that brought it to power only after a year. During its government, the AK Party’s success in fulfilling these promises increased its social support and consolidated its place in power. On the other hand, in order to become entrenched in the politics of Turkey, the party needed to determine a political identity for itself and its voters. For the sake of appealing to larger masses, it did as such on a flexible and amorphous liberal-conservative basis. Rather than defining itself according to what it is, it did so according to what it is not. Establishing the CHP during the single-party rule and the military-civilian bureaucracy that followed it as its antithesis, it automatically obtained the sympathy of those who disliked them due to various experiences. However, it has not been able to completely resolve what it exactly is. Perhaps that is why its discourses and policies vacillated from time to time, even at times with sudden and sharp zigzags.
http://researchturkey.org/wp/wordpress/?p=3630
27. Erdogan cracks down 22 June 2013 / The EconomistTHE protests that have convulsed Turkey since May 31st are gradually dying down. Calm has returned across most of the country. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, seems firmly in control. To judge by the huge turnout at weekend rallies in Ankara and Istanbul of his Justice and Development (AK) party, his base is more loyal and adoring than ever. But at what price? Mr Erdogan had been hailed as a visionary who transformed Turkey into a regional power and proved that political Islam and democracy were a perfectly workable mix. His international reputation is now badly dented. At home critics now fear him as well as disliking him. This seems to be what he wants....
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21579873-vicious-police-tactics-have-reclaimed-taksim-square-and-other-places-protest-high
28. Turkey divided more than ever by Erdoğan's Gezi Park crackdown
20 June 2013 / GuardianAuthoritarian response to mass protests has left the once all-powerful prime minister weakened at home and abroad
he glaziers and joiners were busy this week, fitting up the offices of Turkey's main opposition party with a new reinforced glass entrance. The night before, with Istanbul city centre thronged with hundreds of protesters and riot police, a mob of 20 men bearing knives and sticks arrived at the branch office of the People's Republican party (CHP). They failed to break in so prised up paving stones and hurled them at the front door.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/20/turkey-divided-erdogan-protests-crackdown
29. Syria: the Kurdish view
24 June 2013 / European Council on Foreign RelationsThe civil war and implosion of Syria has offered the region’s Kurds an opportunity to assert their shared vision of deepening political emancipation. With the weakening of central government control over Syria, the most pressing question now facing its Kurdish population is which power centre - the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq or the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - will take the lead. The answer will go some way towards shaping the response of regional neighbours, who are wary of a strengthened Kurdish region. Turkey is particularly cautious: Ankara’s current peace talks with the PKK are a direct result of this concern and the fate of these talks will be vital in determining just how Kurds emerge from the conflict.
http://ecfr.eu/content/entry/commentary_syria_the_kurdish_view142
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