Prominent political commentator Mümtaz’er Türköne has argued that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) laying down its arms marks the beginning of a new political era in Turkey, calling for the immediate reinstatement of elected Kurdish mayors and the release of high-profile political prisoners.
In a widely circulated opinion piece published on Monday, Türköne described the official dissolution of the PKK as a “historic rupture” not only from decades of armed conflict but also from what he called “a century-old nation-state architecture shaped by the 1924 order”. He claimed that the justification for the appointment of state trustees (kayyım) in place of elected mayors has been eliminated, and that the time has come for a wholesale shift toward democracy and legal accountability.
“If the process is expected to proceed on the basis of mutual trust”, Türköne wrote, “then the mayors must immediately return to their duties”.
The commentator, once a leading voice of Turkish nationalism and now an advocate for Kurdish political rights, declared that Turkey had “stepped back from the brink” thanks to the peace process, or Süreç, which he called the new fixed point of Turkish politics. He credited ruling coalition partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli with initiating this shift, while accusing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of having attempted to sabotage it through politically motivated crackdowns, including the controversial police operation against the opposition of 19 March.
Türköne said the end of the PKK’s armed struggle removes the primary political weapon used to suppress dissent in Turkey:
“You can no longer treat people exercising their democratic right to protest as terrorists,” he wrote. “The anti-terror law and the rhetoric branding every critic a threat must be abandoned.”
The column went on to call for the implementation of decisions by Turkey’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that continued non-compliance undermines both domestic and international legal norms. Türköne listed opposition figures Ekrem İmamoğlu, Selahattin Demirtaş, Osman Kavala, Can Atalay and Ümit Özdağ as individuals who should no longer be held in detention.
He also reiterated a demand that trustees imposed on municipalities in the Kurdish-majority southeast be removed, stating that the foundational rationale for their appointment — links of the mayoral officials to terrorism — no longer exists.
Türköne framed the peace process as a structural lever powerful enough to “move everything”, including the 23-year rule of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP). He argued that democratic and legal reforms are not optional but are a requirement for Turkey to move forward:
“You have to replace the word ‘terror’ with democracy and the rule of law,” he concluded. “Softening is not enough — everything must change.”
