The pace of the Kurdish peace process, and the model it will follow have now become intertwined with Abdullah Öcalan's lifespan.
During the failed process of 2013, a particular analysis was widely discussed. Vocalized by Ahmet Türk — still one of the most significant living figures of Kurdish politics — and the late Şerafettin Elçi, the analysis went roughly like this:
'We are the last generation on the Kurdish side with whom dialogue and negotiation are possible. After us, talking peace will become even harder. Because the generation coming up behind us is harder, more uncompromising — we might even call them the 'storm generation.' We must actualize this opportunity for peace before it passes to that more war-minded generation.'
SETTING OUT IN 1978
In 1978 Abdullah Öcalan founded the PKK — the organization he declared dissolved, as its founding leader, last year. The late 1970s were a period when the Turkish left, in all its shades, was at peak mobilization. Öcalan came directly out of the Marxist-Leninist tradition. His university years in Ankara coincided with the 1968 moment.
At the time, he was drawn to the movement of Mahir Çayan — an armed struggle advocate who was killed along with nine companions in Kızıldere, Tokat— and has always spoken openly about that influence.
The PKK he founded has an ethnic dimension, but it belongs equally to the socialist left. Even its name says as much: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê — the Kurdistan Workers' Party. This has been a subject of much debate. After Öcalan established the PKK, numerous other Kurdish-oriented socialist movements were effectively and officially dismantled.
WAR AND PEACE
Öcalan's first armed campaign began in 1984. Yet barely nine years later, in 1993, it was again Öcalan who called for a ceasefire. Öcalan has always been a man who wages war with one eye on the peace table.
Then came 1999 — his departure from Syria, his capture in Kenya, and his transfer to Turkey. İmralı. The resolution process in 2013 that came to nothing. And then the new process launched in late 2024 by MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli.
Twenty-seven years in prison. And again at the center of things, seeking peace. But this time from a position of greater strength in the Kurdish movement — with Kurds in Syria, Iraq, and even Iran now behind him as well. He has no desire to walk out of prison. What he wants is to resolve the matter while he is still alive.
These are, of course, difficult times. The prominent Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş has been behind bars for ten years. Qandil persists. There are prisoners. But while Öcalan is still alive, what he is asking for is no longer a Kurdish state — it is peace.
