A Century of Waiting: Turkey's Kurdish Peace Hangs by a Thread as Syria Burns
The PKK laid down its arms after four decades. Now protests at the Syrian border and Ankara's silence on Kurdish persecution threaten to unravel a historic opportunity for peace.
Turkey's fragile peace process with its Kurdish population faces its biggest test yet, as violence at the Syrian border and the assault on Kurdish areas threaten to unravel a year of progress toward ending a four-decade conflict.
A Historic Peace at Risk
In February 2025, Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, made a historic call for the group to lay down its arms and dissolve itself. By July, the PKK formally announced the end of armed struggle against Turkey, describing it as a transition to democratic politics and law.
The disarmament was celebrated as a breakthrough. On 11 July, PKK fighters held a symbolic ceremony in a cave near Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan, burning their weapons in a bonfire. By October, the organisation announced its complete withdrawal from Turkish territory.
The peace process had the potential to transform the region. More than 40 million Kurds live across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, making them the world's largest stateless ethnic group. In Turkey alone, Kurds comprise roughly a fifth of the population.
Border Violence Shatters the Calm
The fragile peace was tested on 20 January when more than 1,000 pro-Kurdish demonstrators marched toward the Syrian border in the town of Nusaybin. The protest, called by the pro-Kurdish DEM party, ended in confrontation with Turkish security forces.
According to Al-Monitor, police fired tear gas and deployed water cannons against crowds trying to cross into Syria. Some protesters scaled the border fence, while others hurled stones. On the Syrian side, crowds gathered in solidarity in the town of Qamishli.
The protests came in response to the Syrian government's offensive against Kurdish-held areas. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised the Syrian army's advance into Kurdish territory, enraging Turkey's Kurdish population.
Wladimir van Wilgenburg, an expert on Syrian Kurdish affairs, told AFP that the unrest risked collapsing Turkey's peace efforts. Similar protests erupted in Diyarbakir and Istanbul, where police arrested 10 people including a French journalist.
Negotiations at an Impasse
Despite the PKK's disarmament, the peace process has stalled. According to the OSW Centre for Eastern Studies, negotiations have reached an impasse, with significant concessions required from both sides.
Kurdish demands include constitutional amendments to expand ethnic minority rights and the release of Abdullah Ocalan from prison. Turkey has conditioned any further steps on the full demilitarisation of all Kurdish armed groups, including the Syrian Democratic Forces which it considers part of the PKK network.
A senior PKK executive told AFP that the group would take no further steps in the peace process and urged Ankara to advance negotiations by releasing Ocalan. The 76-year-old leader has been imprisoned since 1999 and is seen by many Kurds as indispensable to any lasting settlement.
Europe's Stake in Kurdish Peace
The European Policy Centre has argued that the EU should support a rights-based settlement in Turkey. A successful peace process would serve both European values and strategic interests.
The EU has long been critical of Ankara's treatment of its Kurdish minority. Under EU accession negotiations, the Kurdish issue was considered central to Turkey's human rights record. Since negotiations froze in 2016, however, the matter has largely been framed by Ankara as a security concern.
The Left group in the European Parliament has expressed support for Kurdish self-determination. Martin Schirdewan, the group's co-chair, said that Kurds across the region deserve support for their democratic values.
But official EU policy remains cautious. While the bloc supports Kurdish minority rights and limited autonomy, full backing for independence has been withheld. The EU has not developed an overarching Kurdish policy, instead addressing the issue through bilateral relationships with Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran.
A Century of Statelessness
The Kurdish predicament dates to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The 1920 Treaty of Sevres proposed an autonomous Kurdish state, but it was never implemented. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, negotiated with the new Turkish government, made no mention of a Kurdish homeland.
For a century since, Kurds have been a significant minority in four countries without a state of their own. The 2017 independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan, which passed with more than 90 percent support, was rejected by Baghdad and led to the loss of Kurdish-controlled oil revenues.
The latest crisis in Syria has reminded Kurds across the region of their vulnerability. The fighters who helped defeat ISIS now face attack from multiple directions. The peace process in Turkey, which offered hope for political rather than military solutions, hangs by a thread.
For the EU, which rebuilt itself on principles of minority rights and peaceful conflict resolution, the Kurdish question presents both a test and an opportunity. Supporting a genuine peace in Turkey while protecting Kurds in Syria would demonstrate that European values extend beyond the continent's borders. The alternative is to watch as another historic opportunity for peace slips away.
January 21, 2026