In the great Turkish game of semantics, few words do more political heavy lifting than süreç. Literally “process,” süreç is the bureaucrat’s fig leaf, the politician’s magic wand, and the journalist’s catch-all term when no one knows quite what to call a thing. It conjures movement without a very clear or declared direction, change without rupture, action without accountability. You don’t fail a süreç—you just manage it, drag it, or rebrand it.
From the early 2000s, süreç became the AKP government’s favorite rhetorical container. There was the çözüm süreci (“peace process”), which aimed to end decades of conflict with the PKK—until it quietly collapsed in 2015 with bombings, trenches, and a return to open war. There was the normalleşme süreci (“normalization process”) with Armenia, the katılım süreci (“accession process”) with the European Union, and, more recently, the Terörsüz Türkiye Süreci (“Terror-Free Turkey Process” which sounds very peculiar), a particularly cryptic initiative promising a terror-free Turkey, with no clear participants, roadmap or parliamentary oversight.
The phrase AB süreci—the EU process—was once a centerpiece of Turkey’s Western-facing ambitions. Then-EU Minister Egemen Bağış invoked it tirelessly between 2009 and 2013, framing it as “our democratic process,” even as he launched broadsides against Brussels to please Erdoğan. The term created the illusion of perpetual progress, even as the accession chapters remained closed and the glow of Copenhagen turned to dust.
But the genius of süreç lies in its ideological elasticity. For ultranationalist MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli, the word has served more than once to frame periods of high-stakes nationalism in soft procedural terms. After the PKK’s disarmament announcement in May 2025, Bahçeli issued a seven-step call for the “new süreç”—delicately rebranding a de facto negotiation as a homegrown, sovereign-paced transition. Even his calls for prison reform or national unity rely on süreç to signal authority without triggering alarm.
SÜREÇ FOR FAR RIGHT
On the far right, süreç takes a darker turn. For Zafer Party Chair Ümit Özdağ, the mother of all süreçes is the göç süreci—the “migration process.” In his telling, this was not a humanitarian emergency but a deliberate government scheme to alter Turkey’s demographic balance. His solution, he has said, would involve a brief but decisive süreç to send refugees back to their countries, along with anyone soft-hearted enough to object to their treatment. Here, süreç is not about inclusion or reform, but removal.
In Turkish culture, even reality shows and soap operas have absorbed the word. Life coaches tell weeping contestants that “this is a süreç,” a promise of eventual self-discovery through pain. Psychologists - even ChatGPT, the millennials' constant companion- echo the phrase to heartbroken clients: healing, too, is a süreç. The word flatters inertia while flattering you for enduring it.
Ultimately, süreç is less about outcome than optics. It’s the state’s way of telling you that something, not exactly what, is happening, just not yet. Maybe never. Maybe it will not be what you started with. The reform is coming, the peace is pending, the buses are revving. Just trust the süreç.
