Southeast Turkey, the place the military has battled Kurdish militants for many years, shouldn’t be but satisfied that lasting peace is at hand.
In a slickly managed ceremony throughout the border in Iraq Friday, members of the Kurdish insurgent group PKK destroyed their weapons as a part of a peace course of underway with the Turkish state.
However on the streets and within the tea homes of Hakkari, a Kurdish-majority city some 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the Iraqi border, few folks categorical a lot hope that the lethal battle is over.
Police, together with undercover officers, patrol the streets of the small city and make their presence felt, an AFP workforce noticed, which discouraged locals from wanting to speak to visiting reporters.
One tea drinker who was prepared to talk requested to not be filmed.
“We do not discuss it as a result of we by no means know what’s going to occur tomorrow,” he defined.
“We are able to say one thing now and tomorrow be punished for it,” he added, noting that earlier peace makes an attempt have failed.
The battle has triggered 50,000 deaths amongst civilians and a pair of,000 amongst troopers, in line with Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
– ‘All types of persecution’ –
On the pavement in entrance of the restaurant the place he works, Mehmet Duman raised his eyebrows. At 26, he is already seen sufficient to make him doubt.
“They segregated us, beat us, just because we’re Kurdish,” he mentioned. “We witnessed all types of persecution.
“So any further, if the state desires a future for Turkey — if they need Turkey to be setting for everybody — they have to cease all this,” he mentioned.
“The state should additionally take a step” to match the symbolic operation to destroy PKK weapons in Iraq.
“Turkey has gained,” Erdogan mentioned Saturday, a day after the PKK’s symbolic destruction of weapons signalling the beginning of the disarmament course of.
“Eighty-six million residents have gained,” he added.
Whereas he has opened a peace course of with the PKK, or Kurdistan Staff’ Celebration, he has additionally continued his crackdown on opposition events.
The federal government has arrested tons of of members of the CHP, a social-democratic, secular celebration descended from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of the Turkish Republic. The primary opposition pressure to Erdogan, it’s rising within the polls.
“For the reason that starting of the peace course of, Turkey has turn out to be a way more authoritarian nation,” mentioned political analyst Berk Esen.
“The disarmament of a terrorist group ought to, or may, result in democratization and social peace, nevertheless it in all probability will not.”
– Crackdown on opposition –
These arrested embody the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, the celebration’s doubtless candidate within the subsequent presidential elections, and the mayors of different main cities who took energy when CHP made main features in March 2024 native elections.
Accused of “corruption”, they deny the costs towards them.
The crackdown has additionally hit opposition media retailers, such because the Sozcu channel. It was compelled into silence after 16 fines and suspensions since January — “one each two weeks”, its director, Ozgur Cakmakci, famous Tuesday night as lights went out.
“There’s little doubt that there’s an intention to liquidate opposition channels as a part of an authoritarian mission,” mentioned Erol Onderoglu, the Turkish consultant of Reporters With out Borders.
On Saturday morning, earlier than the plenary session of his AKP celebration, Erdogan sought to be reassuring.
“We all know what we’re doing. Nobody ought to fear, be afraid, or query something. Every thing we’re doing is for Turkey, for our future and our independence,” he insisted.