Regional developments are forcing Turkey to address the Kurdish issue, despite potential attempts at deception in the peace process, declared Salih Muslim, executive board member of North & East Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD), in a wide-ranging interview.
Speaking to ANHA on Sunday, Muslim addressed the Turkish government’s contradictory statements on the Kurdish issue. “Turkey has not stopped its war against the Kurds for ten years. Kurdish leaders and intellectuals said to them, ‘If you solve the Kurdish issue, Kurds and Turks will both win; you will have the potential to become a great power in the Middle East.’ But they didn’t listen,” he said.
Muslim contextualised the current situation within broader regional changes, describing ongoing conflicts as part of a ‘Third World War’ reshaping the Middle East. “In the First World War, the nation-state emerged, in the Second World War, the world was divided into two poles. That system collapsed from 1990, so a new system was needed,” he said.
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The PYD leader highlighted Turkey’s current predicament: “They have come to the brink of bankruptcy economically, politically and diplomatically due to 10 years of war. They need to find a solution. The way to do it is to solve the Kurdish issue, but they haven’t convinced themselves of this yet.”
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Reflecting on previous peace initiatives, Muslim warned against potential deception. “Many words have been said and speeches made, but so far all there has been is greetings. Whatever they say, they deny it the next day. We saw this in the Dolmabahçe peace process in 2015. […] The Ottoman-style games are never ending,” he stated.
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Muslim stressed the crucial nature of the role of imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan in any potential peace process. “The key is in Öcalan’s hands. There may be Ottoman games – they want to diminish or destroy it. But their salvation lies with Öcalan. That moment has come, and they can no longer push it away with their hands saying ‘We don’t accept it,'” he concluded.
