Peace is Not Just the End of War, But Also Freedom and Justice

Walid Hamid.

Written by Walid Hamid

The talks on the peace process that had been stalled and postponed for a long time in Turkey have resurfaced since 2024, with President Mammad Celal considered the real architect of this peace process, who played a key role in laying the foundations and foundations of this process in the 1990s. Despite several obstacles to this process, after several years, since last year, the fruits of this peace process have once again borne fruit and emerged, and with the establishment of a committee of the Turkish Parliament last August, headed by Numan Kurtulmuş, it gained official recognition, which the public sees as a new initiative that aims to resolve the Kurdish issue, despite the different names of the parties, hopes are growing that the committee will fully implement various legal and institutional regulations in areas such as rights, social peace, the preservation of Kurdish identity and the democratization of Turkey.

The Right Time and Place for Reconciliation After Years

In recent years, the concept of "Reconciliation" has periodically resurfaced in the discourse of politicians in Turkey, but it is often addressed in isolation, relying solely on emotional or religious considerations. In international literature, reconciliation is a profound concept that encompasses political and institutional transformations that describe the ways in which societies suffering from sectarian, nationalist and other conflicts are able to resume their normal lives.

Reconciliation is not just about silencing the guns; it is about recognizing the historical injustice that is the cause and basis of the emergence of violence, this is achieved by repairing the relationships that have been damaged by war, conflict and deep tensions and building a new society. What is at stake here is not just peace between individuals, it is a kind of rebuilding of relationships and a real life between the state and its Kurdish citizens. The first step in reconciliation efforts is to define the problem in this context in order to find a cure for the confusion and lack of justice.

Here, I see a difference between my definition of the Kurdish question in general and the conflict between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in particular, which has been ongoing since August 15, 1984. The Kurdish question is a multifaceted and deep-rooted political problem that dates back to before and after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. The non-recognition of Kurdish culture and identity, the prohibition of the Kurdish language, the prevention of its use in public life, and the suppression of Kurdish cultural production are systematic policies that ignore the general rights of the Kurdish people and suppress the political power and ability of the Kurds. Although the Kurds, who were able to organize themselves with a certain degree of autonomy during the Ottoman period, were deprived of their political power and ability within the structure of the centralized national state of the Republic of Turkey, their ability to achieve political representation was constantly limited by methods such as electoral barriers, the successive closure of opposition parties, and the politicization of the judiciary.

These trends and wrong and wrong actions have further complicated the Kurdish issue, as these gaps have widened the conflicts, and day by day have increased the area of war and conflict between the Kurdish and Turkish sides, but for decades, the military option for resolving crises in general, and the Kurdish issue in particular, has not been a realistic option, and neither the Turkish nor the Kurdish side has been successful in this war.

I emphasize here that the negotiations should not be limited to the security framework between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish state, but rather, it should be a social agreement based on equality between the state and the Kurdish people within the framework of reconciliation efforts, where a fundamental condition for assessing how these negotiations should be conducted is to determine the correct and objective path. Who will agree with whom? In this way, reforms and changes and transformations that are destined to come to fruition.

In short, the two sides of the reconciliation should be the Turkish state and the Kurdish people, meaning it should not only be between the Turkish state and the PKK. Identifying the actors on both sides of the reconciliation process, first and foremost the Kurdish people and the Turkish state, will determine a realistic path in which the complicated historical relations can be repaired and a more objective and logical reconciliation can be achieved.

The Inequality Between the Turkish State and the Kurdish People

Most politicians, intellectuals and other Kurdish parties, for various reasons, believe in common beliefs and a common life, and believe in the possibility of peaceful coexistence. Some people express this belief on the basis of centuries of living on the same land, others build it on kinship and friendly relations, and still others derive it from more radical political visions that focus on regional autonomy and question the boundaries of the nation-state. However, the will to live together is built on unequal foundations, because the relations between the Turkish state and the Kurds are unequal, which has always caused conflicts. And no matter how much the state exercises all its power through its laws, security apparatuses and ideologies, the Kurdish people are very oppressed and have historically been forced to struggle for freedom under the most difficult and unequal conditions. Therefore, ignoring this imbalance and the uneven development of reconciliation processes creates the illusion of equality between the parties and instead of peace. Without hope, and instead of true peace, authoritarianism is imposed by force.
Finally, I would like to say that a genuine reconciliation with the Kurds cannot be achieved solely through fake reforms, fake slogans, or routine political maneuvers. The success of the peace process in Turkey depends on deep and radical democratic transformations, the enactment of state laws that recognize the rights of the Kurdish people in Turkey, and compensation for the victims of past wars.