Turkey Passes Law to Achieve Peace With Kurdish Separatists

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Or sign-in if you have an account.(Bloomberg) — Turkish lawmakers adopted legislation laying out the dissolution of a Kurdish separatist group and paving the way for one of the world’s longest insurgencies to come to an end.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountThe law, which parliament passed late Monday, calls for the full disarmament of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, commonly known as the PKK, and allows for amnesty to some of its former militants. The group’s armed, four-decade insurrection against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s second-largest army has left tens of thousands of people dead across Turkey, Iraq and Syria, most of them Kurds. Of the 562 members of parliament present, 468 voted in favor.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againAmounting to a de-facto peace accord, the historic settlement represents a definitive step by Ankara to build on a ceasefire that began after the PKK agreed to lay down its arms more than a year ago.If successful, the settlement could bolster Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s credentials ahead of the next presidential elections — currently scheduled for 2028 — as the leader who resolved the bloody conflict, which has cost Turkey an estimated $2 trillion. It would also free the government to channel more political and economic energy into stabilizing the Middle East, including by helping rebuild war-torn Syria, in line with the US’s vision and its own strategic goals.It was not immediately clear whether the legislation would grant PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan release from the island in the Marmara Sea on which he’s been imprisoned since 1999. Ocalan approves of the law, Turkey’s main Kurdish political party said in a statement earlier this month.Some opposition parties heavily resist peace with the PKK and have called the legislation an affront to Turkish soldiers who were killed in the conflict. They argue that the potentially thousands of PKK militants who had fled the country and would now be allowed to return could stoke social unrest.Erdogan’s AK Party and its parliamentary allies may have been trying to communicate unity by formalizing a peace on the symbolic date of Aug. 10. The Treaty of Sevres, passed on the same day in 1920 though never ratified, dissolved the Ottoman Empire after World War I, divided its remaining lands among European powers and laid the groundwork for a Kurdish state.The initial goal of the PKK, which took up arms in 1984, was the creation of an independent Kurdish state. But over the years it shifted its aims toward legal recognition and greater constitutional rights for Kurds, who make up about a fifth of the country’s population of 86 million and are concentrated in southeast Anatolia. Turkey, the US and the European Union classify the PKK as a terrorist organization.Significant Kurdish populations also exist in Syria, Iraq and Iran. US support for Kurdish forces in Syria, which include PKK affiliates, was for years a persistent tension point between Turkey and the US. Both have since backed Damascus’s efforts to fold those forces into a centralized Syrian military.This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Turkey and the PKK last neared a peace agreement in early 2015. Talks collapsed after a surge in support for Kurdish parties helped strip Erdogan’s AK Party of its parliamentary majority in a general election that year.A resulting clampdown on Kurdish officials included the arrest of Selahattin Demirtas, the then leader of the Kurdish political movement in Turkey, over alleged links to the PKK. Demirtas has been in prison since 2016.Erdogan began reviving peace talks with the Kurds early last year after Devlet Bahceli, an ultranationalist ally of the president, said Ocalan should be released from prison if he urged the PKK to disband.Notice for the Postmedia NetworkThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.