"Local Elections a Referendum on Kurdish Issue"

Associate professor of sociology Mesut Yeğen considers the upcoming local elections –which is unfolding more as a general election during campaigning period, as numerous commentators notes- as a kind of "referendum" regarding the Kurdish issue.

Among the founders of Turkey's Peace Assembly and the author of "Kurdish Issue in State Discourse", Yeğen says "it's a referendum on if the PKK-DTP line should be regarded as the main address for a dialogue to solve the Kurdish issue or not".

"The state and the government are trying to avoid that and hope to render conservative Kurds as their counterpart. I believe that DTP, which claims to be the main actor, will gain strength in the elections." 

According to public surveys conducted by Adil Gür, ruling AKP will loose up to 10 percent of its votes in places where the DTP is participating.

As a result, two demands of PKK-DTP line would be legitimized, said Yeğen to bianet. "An amnesty for PKK militants and the demand for a constitutional guarantee on the Kurdish identity."

Bu this isn't only dependent on local elections and the internal politics of Turkey. Yeğen presumes a new era of balances has begun regarding the Kurdish issue. President Abdullah Gül saying "very good things will happen in Kurdish issue" during a visit to Tehran; plans to hold a conference on the issue in northern Iraq, with the support of the US as well as PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan's welcoming remarks about Gül's words reveal a new base for action according to Yeğen. 

"It seems like there are no problems between Turkey (the government and the army that is), the US and the Kurdish government in northern Iraq. This is a first in the 30 years of armed conflict." According to Yeğen, the compromise includes the disarmament and extraction from Iraq of the PKK. 

"Bu PKK, the fourth actor in this deal has not approved yet. But PKK also signals that in case of a recognition as a legitimate force, it would agree."