The Kurds and Erdogan – how was that again?

Contempt not only costs strength and time, it requires real passion. As is well known, the Turkish President does not lack the Turkish president when it comes to his arch enemy. Now, however, this is not an oppositional, media mogul or foreign head. It is the largest people in the world without their own country that does not leave Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The fact that the Kurdish Workers’ Party now wants to dissolve after its founder Abdullah Öcalan called it up for the waiver of violence in autumn last year is an immense satisfaction for Erdoğan.

The Kurds are a people. Just like Germans, French, British, Turks. It unites common origin, culture and language (with different dialects) – but not a comprehensive religion, although the majority of the Kurds are Sunni Muslims. The estimates of how many people identify as Kurds diverge, presumably it is between 25 and 35 million worldwide.

The historic Kurdistan extends beyond several modern national borders:

The Kurds never had an internationally recognized state, even though they were close after the First World War and the associated demise of the Ottoman Empire. The western victorious powers had given them the prospect of independence in the Sèvres contract. In the end, they were instead divided among four countries - and have remained homeless to this day. Depending on the region, the Kurds enjoy state -recognized autonomy (as in Iraq), at least partially act autonomously (as in Syria) or are suppressed culturally and politically (as in Iran and Turkey).

Anyone who wants to understand why the Kurds in Türkiye have such a serious stand must take a look at the story.

In the 1920s and 1920s, Turkey was just founded, the dream of Kurdistan burst, the Turkish Kurds rebelled, which alone provide around half of the Kurdish people. The consequence: forced settlements, ban on Kurdish names and traditional clothing, restriction of the Kurdish language. Ankara even denied that there was a Kurdish people at all, instead spoke of "mountain turks". But then as now, the identity of millions of people could not simply be talked away.

In 1978 Abdullah Öcalan, son of a Turkish mother and a Kurdish father, founded the Kurdistan workers' party. The aim of this socialist-militant PKK (which has sister organizations in Syria, Iraq and Iran) was the establishment of a Kurdish state until the 1990s, and later at least political autonomy. And be it with force. Since the first armed attacks in the 80s, more than 40,000 people have lost their lives against or through the PKK. The party is classified not only in Turkey, but also by the USA and the EU as a terrorist organization.

In 2013, the Turkish government and the PKK leadership closed a ceasefire. However, he lasted just two years. In July 2015, 33 people died in the mostly Kurdish city of Suruç near the Syrian border. Ankara blamed the Islamic state, the PKK accused the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which was sworn in relatively freshly sworn as President. The PKK and IS to "synchronize war against terror" - in this order explained. "There is no real nationalist anger against [den] Is, but there is a nationalist anger against the PKK, "said political scientist Omer Tasepino from the US Denkfabrik" Brookings Institute ".

The turn last autumn. Erdoğan and his right -wing extremist coalition partner MHP (whose boss wears the nickname "Kurdschlächt") surprisingly approached the Öcalan, which has been detained since 1999. He would be free when the PKK dissolves. At the end of February he called his party exactly. This announced a ceasefire two days later - and finally in mid -May.

The only question is whether Erdoğan will not miss his old opponent. After all, it has been very useful as a national image of the enemy. Whenever a political opponent became dangerous, the President suggested a connection to the PKK that threatens the unity of Türkiye. So the left -wing party HDP once fared.

Erdoğan has been sensed on every corner since the military attempt by the military in 2016. He had an estimated 50,000 people arrested and strengthened the attacks on Kurdish separatists - or those that could be. As long as he kept the PKK offshoots in the Middle East militarily, Erdogan believed that he could suffocate a united, cross-border Kurdish revolution in the bud.

After the dissolution of the PKK, Erdoğan could now, at least apparently, approach the opposition to change the constitution so that it can rule beyond 2028. Actually, the position of the president is limited to five years of five years. A rule that Erdoğan had already laid out in the last election in 2023 when he called the Turks to vote for him "one last time". But even if he was allowed to run again in 2028, the choice would not be a sure -fire success.

Erdoğan's hatred of the Kurds also stems because he cannot ignore them, at least their power at the ballot boxes. Every fifth Turk is Kurd, nothing changes at the end of the PKK. And there are more. Your birth rate is significantly higher than that of the other population groups. And so it probably stays that way: Kurds can be Kurds in Turkey when they recognize Turkish citizenship. "The problem begins if you want an identity with a hyphen," said political scientist Taslar.

Note: This article was first published in December 2024 and updated accordingly.