Looking for a peace agreement with the Kurdish militants, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey tries to do something significant that not only does he want to end 40 years of violent rebellion within Turkey, but predicts ambitious changes throughout the region.
AND Call on Thursday Abdullah FatherThe closed leader of the Kurdistan or PKK workers’ party, in order for his militants to lay a weapon, have followed the negotiations for months and has been a good thoughtful response to the challenges that Mr. Erdogan faces, said ASLI Aydintasbas, a senior associate at Brookings DC institution
At home, this could earn Mr. Erdogan, the Kurdish support he needed for constitutional changes in order to constantly expand his power for more than 20 years – another driving at the Presidency.
Further, ending the conflict with the Kurdish groups moving in parts of Iraq, Syria and Turkey, they would let Turkey and his army of enormous burden. If the Kurds in neighboring Syria follow, it has the potential to calm down a long -standing regional conflict and help stabilizing the Allied, newly married government in Damascus.
“This is a historical call,” Mrs. Aydintasbas said of Mr. Father’s appeal. The proposal “has a lot to do with geopolitical pressures that increase in the Turkish neighborhood, creating a sense of insecurity for both Turks and Kurds,” she said.
“The chaotic beginning of Trump’s administration and the uncertainty of the future of Syria also seemed to be obviously an obvious that she had to consolidate on the home front,” Mrs. Aydintasbas added, “and there is no better way to do so than a contract with Kurds.”
The militant group of Mr. Fireman, PKK, “almost certainly,” she looked after his appeal, she said. He suffered a military attempt to fight urban battles in the eastern Turkish cities in 2015 and mostly retired to the strongholds in the mountainous areas of Iraq.
But the Kurdish forces in Syria, known as the Syrian democratic forces, or the SDF, encouraged training and equipment from Pentagon while joining the United States in his business against the Islamic State in Syria.
Turkey has long considered them a terrorist threat aimed at undergoing safety along its southern border.
Turkey has close ties to the rebel movement Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, who took control of Syria in December after throwing out his longtime dictator, Bashar Al-Assad. Turkish officials have made it clear that the removal or dilution of the perceived Kurdish threat is a priority in its treatment with the new government in Damascus.
Mazlouum Abdi, Kurdish SDF leader, is a close follower of Mr. Fireman and will most likely listen to her appeal to turn to peaceful, democratic changes, Mrs. Aydintasbas said.
Mr. Abdi, in the comments during the news briefing for news on Thursday, said that Mr. Fcelan informed him of the decision to set a weapon in a letter and emphasized the value of peace and stability for the whole region.
Mr. Abdi welcomed the initiative, saying that he would solve the security concerns of Turkey and facilitate the situation for his own strength in Syria. His priority was his own negotiations with the new government in Damascus, he said.
The idea for a peace agreement was First floated in October Mr. Erdogan’s close political alliance, nationalist politician Devlet Bahceli.
Mr. Erdogan openly supported peace negotiations with the Kurds a decade ago before they disastrously corrupted with the fierce struggles of outburst in Kurdish cities. Perhaps that is why the long -standing uncertainty about whether the plan would stick, this time he remained a little awesome with peacetrase. Neither he nor any of his cabinet responded to Mr. Father’s invitation on Thursday.
But his ambitions in the region are wider well known. After taking more than three million Syrian refugees from the Arabian Spring Uprising 2011, he was a strong supporter of rebel groups that fought against Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, and still enjoys close relationships with those groups now that they are in the Government.
At the same time, he extended his military and diplomatic Turkish reach to Africa and offered Syrian military training for his army and air support, proposing the positioning of Turkish air forces in Syrian bases.
One of the concerns of Turkish is the suppression of interference from other countries in Syria, including Israel, who has progressed troops into parts of southern Syria and made overtures to Syrian Kurds.
Mr. Erdogan will also calculate for political gains at home from peace with the Kurds, which represent an important political force that ranked the side of the coalition of opposition parties against Mr. Erdogan.
The Kurds have already made it clear that they are expecting political and legal protective measures in any agreement. They are likely to demand the release of political prisoners and changes in the legislation of terrorism and constitutional amendments, said Mrs. Aydintasbas.
An agreement with the Kurds could allow constitutional changes that would remove ethnic divisions and give the Kurds a devoluction of power. This could also be given to Mr. Erdogan another leadership of the Presidency, said his former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in speech in the City of Izmir, who reported Turkish media on Friday.
“We are surrounded by instability, dangers and threats,” Mr. Yildirim said. “It takes stability, trust and, most importantly, a strong leader. Therefore, we should open the way to our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to re -candidate for the president. The new constitution should also predict it. “
Safak Timur Contributing to Istanbul reporting.
