Zübeyir Aydar, a senior figure in the Kurdish umbrella organisation the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), has warned that a sustainable peace in Turkey requires mutual commitment and deep constitutional reform rather than rhetorical appeals to “brotherhood” or one-sided initiatives. His remarks follow the recent congress of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in which the group announced its dissolution and disarmament and a political report by imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan was shared with the public.
Speaking in an interview published on 6 June by ANF, Aydar expressed frustration at what he described as the Turkish government’s failure to take “genuine, legal steps” in response to Kurdish calls for peace and dialogue. “Peace, by its nature, must be mutual,” he said, quoting ta metaphor used by the Turkish nationalist leader Devlet Bahçeli: “A bird cannot fly with one wing.”
Aydar insisted that symbolic overtures were insufficient, and warned that the current legal and constitutional order systematically excludes Kurds. “The word ‘Turk’ appears 41 times in the constitution, yet the word ‘Kurd’ does not appear even once,” he said. “If we are siblings, we must be equals – in every field, in every way.”
The Kurdish side, Aydar claimed, had already taken transparent and serious steps. These include the PKK’s decision to renounce the armed struggle and dissolve itself and Abdullah Öcalan’s 27 February call for a legal and democratic solution to the Kurdish issue. “We have done more than our share,” he said. “But peace cannot be built by one side alone.”
Aydar accused the government of using stalling tactics and warned that without concrete legal reforms and constitutional recognition of Kurdish rights, the process cannot move forward. He called for the lifting of the isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held in solitary confinement for years, with almost no access to lawyers or family.
He also criticised the Turkish parliament for failing to form a commission to address the Kurdish issue, arguing that all political parties, including the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), should be included in any initiative. “This issue does not concern only the PKK. It goes back more than 200 years: over 100 in the Ottoman period and 100 in the Republic,” he said.
Referring to recent developments in Turkey’s internal politics, Aydar condemned the government’s judicial pressure on CHP leader Özgür Özel and the ongoing detentions of Kurdish politicians. “You are trying to suppress the main opposition party that won the local elections,” he said. “This is an attempt at sabotage against the [peace] process.”
Aydar stressed that a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish issue is inseparable from a wider democratisation process. “Kurdish rights and democracy go hand in hand,” he said. “There can be no true peace unless there is democracy for everyone.”
