CONTENT: While no one knows specifics, statements from Kurdish officials & Ocalan’s past peace proposals suggest that possible topics to be addressed may include a ceasefire; a legal framework for the process; changes in PKK’s structure; &the status of NE Syria.
www.kurdishpeace.org/research/con...

CONTENT: The Turkish gov’t is talking about the declaration of an “end to terrorism.” DEM is talking about “a roadmap aimed at moving the resolution of the Kurdish issue from a violent base to a political, legal and democratic base.”

What does that mean?
www.kurdishpeace.org/research/con...

FORMAT: PKK demands a video message. Turkey's Justice Minister says that’s not legally possible. DEM says it is possible and is encouraging a video message.
www.kurdishpeace.org/research/con...

TIMING: Nothing happened on 2/15, the earliest date posited & the anniversary of Ocalan’s arrest. DEM says their delegation will go back to Imrali before a call is made. That visit has not yet been announced. The latest projected date is Newroz (3/21).
www.kurdishpeace.org/research/con...

Roundup for the week of February 17 - 23 🔽
open.substack.com/pub/kurdishp...

Roundup for the week of February 10 - 16 🔽
open.substack.com/pub/kurdishp...

Roundup for the week of February 3 - 9 🔽
open.substack.com/pub/kurdishp...

Thanks for sharing!

Highlights for Jan. 24, 2025:

- DEM shares insights on expanding the process, the disarmament issue, Syria, and next steps from Ocalan's Jan. 22 mtg
- SDF welcome UN envoy's call for dialogue w/ Damascus
- Masoud Barzani discusses Kurdish unity and his Jan. 16 mtg w/ Mazlum Abdi

Back then, US/Coalition chose not to expand Turkey-SDF dialogue into a grand regional Turkish-Kurdish deal.

The result was Operation Peace Spring, widely considered a failure for everyone.

Will they take a different approach this time?

I’m interested to see how the nascent return to Turkey-PKK dialogue will play into all of this.

In 2019, we also saw Coalition mediation between Turkey and SDF in the context of a Turkey-PKK thaw (Ocalan meetings, Erdogan outreach to Kurd voters in Istanbul, Bayik op-ed asking for mediation).

There, we feature comments from Hevi Mustafa, the first president of Efrin Canton and an Alevi Kurdish woman.

Her story would not be possible anywhere else in Syria. No actor but the DAANES would allow a non-Sunni Muslim, non-Arab woman to hold political power.

We also wrote this brief history of how organized women fought for, and won, the institutionalization of the co-chair system in all DAANES structures, featuring interviews that didn’t fit in the original analysis.
www.kurdishpeace.org/policy/insti...

If they reach DAANES territory, these militias will take revenge on any woman who has ever stood up and said she wants to determine her own future. We know what they did to the women of Efrin. We know what they did to Hevrin Khalaf. They are proud of this and want to do it again.

The groups advancing now, HTS and SNA, offer women nothing. They do not believe women are capable of making decisions for their communities or defending themselves. They believe women are third class citizens and that this inferiority is simply the natural order of things.