Keep DEM Guessing

Issue #230

Etiquette: Asking bus riders to watch TikTok videos with earphones.

Open threat: Shutting down one of Turkey’s few independent media institutions. Pour one for Açık Radyo.

In this week’s recap:

• Potential peace process dominates agenda

• Erdoğan fortifies ties in Albania, Serbia

• Survey finds deep institutional distrust

• Turkish köfte chain accused of using pork meat

• Domestic and diplomatic wraps

• AKP officials whopped for Burger King ceremony

Also from us this week: 

• Gonca Tokyol interviews former journalist İlhami Işık about the potential peace process. (Turkish only)

• Ingrid Woudwijk reports on the rise of techno-nationalism from Adana’s Teknofest.

Despite a governor ban, DEM Party led a rally in Diyarbakır Saturday. © DEM

"At first, they beat the Kurds because they danced the halay. Now they are saying we are all brothers and sisters, and Kurds are the ones who should be more peaceful," said Barış, a 25-year-old worker from Van currently living in İstanbul's Üsküdar district.

Barış appeared confused and suspicious about recent developments regarding the Kurdish issue. 

"I really want to believe that it's real this time," he said. "But we had so many bad experiences."

While Turkey's new "solution era" completes its second week after MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli's surprise handshake with DEM politicians and the AKP-MHP alliance's kind-of-constructive comments on the topic, many observers are keeping their reservations. 

"Everyone watches what's happening," a CHP advisor who worked with Kurdish politicians told Turkey recap. "It's on the agenda of almost every person in Ankara. They are trying to analyze it."

However, while the expectations for a new round of peace talks continue to rise, there are still no concrete steps from any side shared with the public.

DEM Party Deputy Chair Sezai Temelli, told journalists Monday that the party was not informed about any meetings, and that PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s jail cell in İmralı should be the starting point of any attempt. Temelli added DEM Party was prepared to act on the parliamentary side of the process if "negotiation traffic starts again."

According to İlhami Işık, a former journalist who took part in peace negotiations between the Turkish state and PKK between 1996-2013, that traffic has probably already begun.

While noting he has no direct involvement in current events, Işık told Turkey recap Türkçe that depending on his prior experiences, he was sure the state would be in contact with Öcalan, who has been jailed on İmralı island for more than 25 years.

"Even during the toughest times, the talks continued," Işık said. "Pres. Erdoğan can claim that there are none, but those talks happen."

More developments on this topic are on the horizon – including our soon-to-be-published Q&A with DEM deputy Cengiz Çandar, who believes something is happening but it’s too early to call it a "peace process".

– Gonca Tokyol

Erdoğan always makes space for a Tirana-misu. © TCCB

Bal-kanka: Erdoğan fortifies ties in Albania, Serbia