A resurfaced video featuring Kadir İnanır, a renowned Turkish actor and former member of Turkey’s Committee of Wise Persons set up to facilitate an earlier peace process, has gained renewed attention amid the latest efforts towards peace following imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s historic call on 27 February for the dissolution of the PKK and democratic reforms.
The interview, originally aired on CNN Türk in 2014, captures İnanır’s conversation with leading journalist Şirin Payzın during the 2013-15 peace process, which was unilaterally ended by the Turkish government. At the time, İnanır was part of the Committee of Wise Persons, a group tasked with promoting dialogue on resoltuion of the Kurdish issue.
Journalist Fehim Işık’s reflection on İnanır’s decade-old statement resonates deeply with the ongoing discussions around peace and justice in Turkey. In the 2013-15 previous peace process, İnanır called for a truth commission to confront the past 30 years of conflict and ensure transparency for the people. But when those peace efforts collapsed, history repeated itself with renewed atrocities. Now, with Abdullah Öcalan’s recent call for an end to this devastating war, the urgency of İnanır’s words is more relevant than ever.
The resurfacing of the interview coincides with the emergence of a new peace process, which began in October 2023 when Devlet Bahçeli, leader of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), unexpectedly shook hands with pro-Kurdish Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party MPs on the day of the opening of the Turkish Parliament. This symbolic gesture was followed by Bahçeli publicly inviting Öcalan to make a call for peace, leading to a series of meetings between Öcalan and DEM Party representatives, and culminating in the historic statement from Öcalan on 27 February, which called for the end of armed struggle and a transition to democracy in Turkey.
In the 2014 interview, Payzın asked İnanır what he would say if he were to meet Abdullah Öcalan, who has been in prison for 26 years, mostly in isolation, and has endured absolute incommunicado conditions for the past four years.
"We must acknowledge the importance of Abdullah Öcalan in this process. He is truly the leader of his people," İnanır said.
The resurfaced footage has gained renewed significance as Öcalan’s recent call for peace has sparked international support for democratic reforms in Turkey and growing demands for his release.
In the same interview, İnanır emphasised the need to establish a Truth Commission to uncover crimes committed over the past 30 years, including extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and abuses in state institutions.
"We must expose every crime committed in this process, uncover every single perpetrator, and show the people the truth. Let them see how this conflict escalated," he stated.
İnanır criticised the lack of public awareness regarding state violence, referring to the notorious Diyarbakır Dungeon and 17,000 unsolved political murders in the 1990s.
"The people do not know. They do not know what happened in Diyarbakır Dungeon. They do not know about the 17,000 unsolved murders. The language used in academia does not reach the public. No one tells these stories in the language of the people," he said.
He added that while Kurdish politicians had long pushed for such a commission, it was often perceived as a purely Kurdish demand, whereas the entire country needed to confront its past.
“This truth commission will be painful. But it must be painful. Otherwise, nothing will ever change,” he argued.
The resurfacing of İnanır’s remarks also serves as a reminder of the last ten years, which have been described by opposition groups as one of the most repressive and violent periods in the history of the Turkish Republic. The post-2015 period saw an intensified crackdown on Kurdish political representation, mass arrests of opposition figures, the replacement of elected Kurdish mayors with government-appointed trustees, and systematic state violence against Kurdish communities.
Under emergency rule and anti-terror laws, thousands of journalists, academics, human rights defenders and opposition politicians were imprisoned, while media censorship and judicial control intensified. In this climate, any prospects for democratic transition were largely eliminated—until now.
Öcalan’s statement of 27 February has positioned the new peace process as the only viable path towards Turkey’s democratisation, with growing domestic and international calls for his release as a necessary step to ensuring a lasting resolution.
Throughout the last decade of escalating state repression, İnanır has remained committed to the principles he expressed in the 2014 interview. He has never accepted the shift toward authoritarian policies and has repeatedly stressed the importance of a political, rather than military, solution to the Kurdish question.
Despite increasing pressure on public figures not to engage in discussions on peace, İnanır has continued to speak out in favour of dialogue, recognition of historical injustices, and Öcalan’s role in achieving a lasting settlement. His unwavering stance is now being revisited as Turkey reopens discussions on a potential peace framework.
