The ‘Kurdish peace process’ and bad omens

The beginning of the “Kurdish peace process” was a big relief, as it was a giant step for the government to engage with the Kurdish political movement to solve the problem. Besides, it paved the way for a freer political debate on the Kurdish issue. I personally benefited from this political atmosphere; right after the process began, a legal allegation against me for “promoting terrorism” by saying that the “PKK is not a terrorist organization” was dropped, since it was considered that the context of my speech was pro-peace and in tune with the politics of peace process. Now, I hope other similar legal proceedings against me will also be dropped. So far, so good.

Nevertheless, it seems that the peace process is going nowhere, while the latest taboo is to discuss the so-called Kurdish peace process itself. Government circles consider any criticism concerning “the peace process” as political sabotage. Besides, voicing problems about the process is considered a form of schadenfreude or political provocation. Unfortunately, the main Kurdish party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has started to adopt a similar attitude even if criticism comes from “friendly” voices who have been supportive of Kurdish rights and freedoms for a long time.

First of all, nobody knows whether the negotiations with PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan are actually going well or not. The government declares that it is going well, and then an HDP delegation that visits Öcalan makes similar declarations, but subsequent declarations from the PKK sound a different note.

Moreover, the government’s declarations often contradict the HDP declarations regarding the content of the negotiations. Most recently, for instance, the HDP delegation declared that...