This atmosphere of mutual distrust and rivalry over northern Syria has played an important role in the erosion of the fragile foundations for peace.
Protest of Kurdish diaspora before European Parliament, July 28, 2015. Demotix/Aurore Belot. All rights reserved.Turkey’s precarious peace process with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) appears to have been officially shelved for now after the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,declared that it was impossible for peace efforts to continue any longer.
“Today, it is from the collective efforts around the Kurdish movement that we are learning what a society made up of free individuals might look like in Turkey.”
In the Gazi neighbourhood during the funeral of three of the people who died in Suruc. Several HDP party members and politicians hold the banner with the portraits: Figen Yuksekdag, to her right Sebahat Tuncel, to her left Ertugrul Kurkcu, and on the far left, Pervin Buldan. Photographer: Ulas Yunus Tosun.
In its first real test after the end of military control, Turkish democracy has failed. If democracy cannot keep its promise and bring peace, then what can?
Istanbul protest at government’s cessation of peace process with PKK, July, 2015. Demotix/Erhan Demirtas. All rights reserved.In spite of being one of the only polities in the Middle East considered as a democracy-model for other Muslim nations by American administrations, Turkey has had an uneasy relationship with democracy throughout its history.
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