PKK peace negotiations cause concern among Syrian Kurds

Youssef Shaikho

With the withdrawal of some Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters to their rear bases in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the peace agreement between the party and the Government of Turkey has entered the implementation phase.

The Turkish press reports that five armed groups withdrew from the Turkish provinces of Van, Şırnak and Hakkari, noting that each group consisted of some 20 fighters.

The withdrawal has caused a sense of cautious optimism as well as apprehension among Kurds in Syria, who will be affected by the outcome of these talks. The PKK and its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who was arrested in Kenya in 1999 and is currently being held in Imrali, Turkey, has strong influence in the Syrian Kurdish areas through the party’s branch in Syria, known as the Democratic Union Party (PYD). Estimates suggest that about 20 per cent of the PKK’s fighters are Syrians.

Some Syrian Kurds see the withdrawal from Turkey tantamount to surrender for the party. Others wonder why the party agreed to prevent fighters from returning to their villages and towns, asking: “Are not most fighters from areas in Turkey?”

Ahmed Omar, a 32-year-old rights activist from Qamishli, speaks for many Syrian Kurds when he wonders about what kind of guarantees Turkey gave the PKK before the party agreed to take such a “dangerous step.”

Omar is encouraged, however, by the international support for the talks. Washington, for example, welcomed the PKK’s announcement to start withdrawing troops, as it praised Ocalan’s March 21 statement declaring full support for the negotiations, calling for the release of detainees from both sides, and for the rights of Kurds to be guaranteed in the Turkish Constitution. The European Parliament in Strasbourg is also debating whether to remove the PKK from its list of terrorist organisations.

Observers have noted Ocalan’s emphasis on the importance of the negotiations, which, if successful, would end a bloody war that has been raging since 1984 and killed nearly 45,000 people, according to official Turkish sources.

Jaffi Sheikh, 26, believes that Ocalan’s position has been constant since the beginning, but the regional and international circumstances have changed. Sheikh, a native of the city of Derek (also called Malikkiyah in Arabic), says that at this stage, both sides are serious about negotiations.

Dalkhwaz Pahlavi, 34, a journalist, disagrees. Pahlavi says that “Ankara’s position is still not clear,” expressing fear that the Kurdish-Turkish conflict could spread beyond Turkey’s borders.

Several factors could complicate negotiations, said Sheikh, such as the refusal of the Republican People’s Party or the Turkish Nationalist Party to cooperate. Turkish nationalists have objected to the peace process, refusing to negotiate with a party that is listed by Turkey, the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization.

Ankara University recently witnessed clashes between supporters of the negotiations and Turkish nationalist opponents. The incident occurred just days after Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler warned of an uptick in increasingly violent protests against the peace process in the universities.

An official media spokesperson for the PYD, Nawwaf al-Khalil, says there are clear indications of a US-European consensus to push towards a resolution on the Kurdish issue in Turkey. What’s more, says Khalil, is that the Turkish side is serious this time in dealing with the leadership of the PKK, but adds: “We must not forget that the Turkish government will do anything to prevent the Kurdish representatives from achieving their goal: A constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people, and a solution that reflects the existence of the Kurdish people and their relationship to the geographical area of Kurdistan.”

Syrian Kurds have no doubt that the results of these negotiations will have a direct impact on their future in Syria.

As Pahlavi pointed out, Turkey “embraces the Syrian opposition and influences them,” adding: “In the event of a peace deal with Turkey, this would of course affect the Turks’ position and in turn the position of the Syrian opposition towards the Kurdish issue in Syria.”

The last few weeks have shown that the talks in Turkey can have positive effects on the Kurds in Syria. For example, Sheikh points to the improvement of relations between the battalions of the Free Syrian Army and Kurdish protection forces (the YPG, a militia affiliated with the PYD) in Syria’s Kurdish areas after Turkey stopped inciting the FSA against the Kurds. This has not necessarily translated into reality on the ground, however, with the area of Afreen in the province of Aleppo having witnessed violent clashes between the FSA and Kurdish fighters.

But Khalil insists that the negotiations between the Kurds and Ankara are beginning to have a positive effect. The president of the Syrian National Coalition, George Sabra, recently called on major Kurdish parties to join the Coalition.

This step, Khalil says, “reflects the changes that have taken place in the attitudes of some Syrian opposition parties close to Turkey.”

However, the PYD, which is represented in the National Coordination Committee of the opposition, is not in agreement with the Syrian National Coalition.

Turkish officials have said that the number of people privy to the contents of the negotiations can be counted on the fingers of one finger. Many Syrian Kurds are conscious of this ambiguity; they know neither the terms of the party’s demands nor how the Turks intend to implement them. This vagueness is the primary source of concern among Syrian Kurds, who are all too aware that their fate in Syria is linked to the outcome of these talks.