La Turchia e la questione curda. Guerra, diritti e pace

The results of the 2015 general elections were celebrated as a victory of the Kurdish minority given that the HDP (the major Kurdish party) succeeded to pass the threshold, being the first Kurdish party in the history of modern Turkey to enter the parliament. Although observers foresaw the resolution of the Kurdish issue under the new parliamentary formula, Turkey and the PKK resumed their four-decade old armed struggle. The paper analyses the causes and evolution of Turkey’s Kurdish question, the peace process, as well as the domestic and international context which facilitated the events. After many years of civil war, causing the loss of the life of tens of thousands Kurds and Turks alike, the AKP party launched its so-called “Kurdish opening” policy, granting some cultural rights to the Kurdish minority and announcing peace negotiation with the imprisoned PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan. Despite this positive evolutions the “Kurdish question” remains a pressing issue on the state’s political agenda, requiring concrete steps both in terms of minority rights and disarming of the rebels.

The Proceedings of the International Conference European Integration - Between Tradition and Modernity