The Middle East has been experiencing a huge transformation for the last decade. Since the eruption of the Arab insurgencies and revolutions, the cards in the region have been reshuffled. The first reshuffle was witnessed in the Arab world. Many failed or vulnerable states emerged in the Arab world. Second, the very nature of the Palestinian-Israeli question has changed, especially after the al-Aqsa Flood. Israel has been committing the crime of genocide in Palestine with the support of major Western countries. Unfortunately, so far, no Arab or Muslim state has been able to act as a deterrent force. Third and last, developments in the Kurdish question greatly impacted the region.
The late Robert Olson, a former professor of Middle East history and politics at the University of Kentucky, explained the Kurdish issue with two different concepts. According to the classification made by Olson, the "Kurdish question" refers to the interstate features of the issue, while "Kurdish problem" refers to the impact of the issue on domestic and foreign policies of regional states such as Iraq, Türkiye, Iran and Syria, in which Kurds constitute a meaningful share of their respective populations. The first concept is used to describe a Middle Eastern question, while the second refers to national issues in each country.
There are different dimensions of the Kurdish issue, one of the oldest in the Middle East. It started as an identity problem; then the issue was discussed within the context of democratization, pluralism and human rights as well as security and terrorism. It is now seen more as a geopolitical and strategic issue for central governments. Therefore, a regional strategic plan is needed for a permanent solution to the issue. When we look at the three different contexts of the Kurdish question, we see that the atmosphere has largely changed.
The first context is Iraq. It can be considered that the Kurdish problem in Iraq is largely solved after the introduction of the new Constitution in 2005, according to which the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was established. The autonomous KRG government is a constitutional Kurdish political entity. Türkiye has recognized the regional government and opened a consulate general in March 2010 in Irbil. After developing a state-to-government relationship, Türkiye became the largest economic partner of the regional government. The KRG region is an important market for Türkiye. On the other hand, the survival strategies of KRG require closer relations with Türkiye.
The second context is Syria. The Kurds living in Syria were mainly deprived of their rights, including their citizenship, by the old Syrian regime. The new Syrian government has signed an agreement with the YPG, the main Kurdish political actor in the country. According to this agreement, the Kurds living in Syria will be able to claim their cultural, social and political rights on the basis of equal citizenship.
The third context is Türkiye. Türkiye nowadays takes initiatives in the resolution of both the national Kurdish problem and the regional Kurdish question. Türkiye has taken many concrete steps in giving the cultural rights of the Kurdish people. For instance, the state runs a Kurdish TV channel and the Kurdish language is taught at universities. It seems that Türkiye is determined to permanently solve its Kurdish problem, after initiating the latest process of the “terror-free Türkiye” project. Eventually, many observers believe that it is necessary for Ankara to solve its national problem and manage the regional Question.
In order to solve the regional Kurdish question as well as its own Kurdish problem, Türkiye has to go through certain stages. First of all, Türkiye has to end the violence and terrorist activities within the country. For this, the PKK is expected to disarm itself, as a response to the call made by Abdullah Öcalan, the founding leader of the PKK. The Turkish government invites relevant actors to the political arena. There is a high expectation that the PKK will convene its "congress" in northern Iraq and announce its dissolution decision.
Furthermore, Türkiye has to improve its relations with the Kurdish actors in other countries. Türkiye has to improve constructive relations with most political actors in the KRG region, including the regional government, which is dominated by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by the Barzani family. Some other Iraqi Kurdish political actors are also involved in the process and try to make contributions to the process. Similarly, Türkiye has good relations with some Kurdish groups in Syria, such as the KDP-Syria and the Syrian Kurdish National Council (ENKS). These groups cooperated with the Syrian opposition groups and fought against the Assad regime.
Also, Türkiye has to cooperate with other central governments, namely Syria and Iraq, to manage and solve the regional question. Türkiye has been trying to implement one of the basic principles of its foreign policy orientation, the solution of regional problems with regional actors, in the Kurdish question. It has been trying to manage the question together with the Iraqi and Syrian governments. Ankara knows well that without the full support of other regional actors, it would become very difficult, if not impossible, to solve the issue.
Türkiye has understood well that the more the global powers intervene in the Kurdish issue, the more prolonged it becomes. Therefore, Türkiye has been trying to minimize the destructive effects of the global powers, which are seen as the main power behind most of the prolonged crises. Considering their relative capacity of the central governments, it is clear that Türkiye will take the initiative and establish necessary platforms to manage and solve the regional Kurdish question.
