Turkey Wonk

The PYD’s victory in Kobane has had a tremendous impact on Turkey’s Kurdish political movement. The feeling of Pan-Kurdish solidarity with Rojava - three autonomous cantons in neighboring Syria - has complicated the AKP and Abdullah Ocalan led efforts to strike a peace accord. The situation remains fluid, but schisms inside the AKP and the Kurdish political movement appear to have grown over two inter-related issues: Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s quest for an executive presidency and the PKK’s withdrawal from Turkey. Is the peace process beholden to Erdogan’s Presidential ambitions? How has Kobane changed the nature of Pan-Kurdish politics? Will the HDP’s electoral strategy backfire? To answer these questions, Aaron spoke with Amberin Zaman, a columnist for Turkey’s Taraf newspapers, as well as a contributor to Al-Monitor and other western publications, about the state of Kurdish politics in Turkey today. Links: Turkey and its Kurds: Dreams of self-rule | The Economist Kurd