In a striking personal and political statement, Mümtaz’er Türköne, a former Turkish nationalist intellectual and long-time commentator, has declared his intention to live “as a Kurd”, crediting Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli with enabling a new chapter in Turkey’s long-running Kurdish conflict.
Writing in an opinion column titled “My Kurdish side” (“Kürt yanım”) on Saturday, Türköne reflected on his ethnic Turkish upbringing and nationalist background, while declaring a symbolic realignment with the Kurdish struggle for equality. “As someone known as a Turkish nationalist, I have decided to live the rest of my life as a Kurd,” he wrote, quoting the late MHP founder Alparslan Türkeş’s remark: “A Kurd is as much a Kurd as I am; a Turk is as much a Turk as a Kurd is.”
Türköne’s statement comes days after the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) reportedly voted to dissolve itself at a congress—an unprecedented step he describes as marking the beginning of a new era. He argues that such a moment was only made possible through Bahçeli’s “persistence and resolve”, stating that the veteran nationalist leader “not only opened the way, but laid out a detailed roadmap for the future.”
“This success is above all Devlet Bahçeli’s”, Türköne wrote. “Without his insistence, we could not have reached this outcome so quickly.”
He urged readers not to dwell on rumours or past missteps, but to focus on the future. “Let’s be clear: if the PKK had not voted for dissolution, war would have been declared,” he said.
Türköne praised Bahçeli’s recent public writings as a blueprint for building a modern, rights-based Turkish nation-state inclusive of Kurds. Among these was a redefinition of citizenship: “Everyone bound to the Republic of Turkey by citizenship shares equal rights and obligations.”
He also endorsed Bahçeli’s reaching out to the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, saying it showed “a clear and honest political programme”, and invoked the late Sırrı Süreyya Önder as a figure representing the DEM Party’s integration into mainstream Turkish politics.
In a deeply personal section, Türköne described growing up in a Turkish household of six brothers, experiencing neighbourhood fights and familial solidarity as lessons in politics. “The real struggle”, he said, “is about standing back-to-back with your kin while the world changes around you”.
Addressing criticisms from former nationalist allies and sectors of the Turkish opposition, Türköne distinguished between those offering reasoned objections and others exploiting the peace process for personal gain. He accused some “White Turks,” especially from coastal regions, of maintaining superiority complexes and using the Kurdish issue to assert ethnic hierarchies.
Now identifying as Kurdish, Türköne framed his choice as a moral imperative rooted in shared fate and justice. “It is not easy,” he acknowledged. “Together with my [Kurdish] brother—who has been beaten for a hundred years—we are setting out on a new path.”
He emphasised that Kurds, drawing on a century of political experience, demand not secession but the democratisation of the state. “The power to democratise the Turkish state lies in Kurdish hands,” he said. “A democratic Turkey can only emerge when law is held above all, and when the will of the people prevails.”
The real battle, Türköne concluded, lies not in military struggle but in empathy. “The strongest weapon we now hold is a broad campaign of Sympathy and Empathy aimed at the Kurds,” he wrote. He dismissed fears about federalism or separatism as outdated distractions, instead calling for a re-imagining of Turkishness that includes Kurdish identity at its core.
“Try seeing the world as a Kurd, like I do now,” Türköne urged.
