Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party and leftist political groups on Monday told the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that the “goodwill” phase in Turkey’s Kurdish peace effort was over, demanding immediate steps to end trustee appointments to municipalities, comply with top court rulings and move democratic reform laws through parliament, Turkish Minute reported.
The joint declaration was signed by 11 parties and organizations, including the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP) and the Labor Party (EMEP). The statement said the peace initiative could no longer continue through vague promises and accused the government of treating the issue mainly as a security matter instead of taking political and legal steps to build peace.
The groups called for four main measures: an end to the practice of removing elected mayors and replacing them with state-appointed trustees; immediate implementation of rulings by Turkey’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights; a halt to what they described as judicial operations against opposition forces; and faster parliamentary work on transition law and democratic integration measures. They also specifically cited cases involving jailed politician Selahattin Demirtaş, former co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ, lawmaker Can Atalay, businessman and civil society figure Osman Kavala and urban planner Tayfun Kahraman.
The statement reflects growing impatience among Kurdish political actors and their allies as Turkey’s peace track enters a new phase. On February 18, a parliamentary commission approved a roadmap that links legal reform to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s laying down of arms and reintegration, moving the process into the legislative arena after more than 40 years of conflict that has killed over 40,000 people. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
Pressure for state action grew further on February 27, when jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan said peace-related laws were needed for a transition to “democratic integration,” one year after he called on the group to end its armed campaign and dissolve itself.
During this month’s Nevruz celebrations, DEM Party leaders also called for legal steps, a formal “peace law” and a new status for Öcalan, saying a lasting settlement required legal guarantees rather than declarations of intent.
That push has unfolded against a backdrop of continued pressure on Kurdish political expression. Turkish authorities detained 170 people in operations tied to this year’s Nevruz events on allegations mainly involving the dissemination of PKK propaganda, a sweep that deepened doubts among Kurdish political actors about whether Ankara is prepared to match the peace efforts with broader democratization.
