Europe | The long road to peace

Turkey could soon strike a historic peace deal with the Kurds

But many pitfalls lie ahead

Turkiye's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli
Photograph: Getty Images
|ISTANBUL

DEVLET BAHCELI, the leader of Turkey’s biggest nationalist party, has made a career out of opposing concessions to the country’s 15m-strong Kurdish minority. The only solution to Turkey’s conflict with armed Kurdish separatists, he has long argued, is to pound them into the ground. Since 2016, when Mr Bahceli and his Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) threw their weight behind Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he has been able to put his convictions to work. On his watch, the government unleashed armed offensives against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) at home and abroad. Thousands of Kurdish politicians and activists ended up behind bars.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The long road to peace”

Europe November 2nd 2024

From the November 2nd 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition
Reuse this content

Discover more

French President Macron visits the Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris

Emmanuel Macron shows off the gloriously restored Notre Dame

Five years after it was gutted by fire, the cathedral is more beautiful than ever

An illustration of Ursula von der Leyen bending down in front of a door. On the door is a sign that reads 'Danger! Hard right, keep locked'. In the bottom of the door is a cat flap. An arm is reaching out of the cat flap as she reaches down to take the hand.

Ursula von der Leyen has a new doctrine for handling the hard right

The boss of the European Commission embarks on a second term

Marine Le Pen (L) arrives at the Paris criminal courthouse for her trial on suspicion of embezzlement of European public funds

Marine Le Pen spooks the bond markets

She threatens to bring down the French government, but also faces a possible ban from politics

The maths of Europe’s military black hole 

It needs to spend to defend, but voters may balk

Ukraine’s warriors brace for a Kremlin surge in the south 

Vladimir Putin’s war machine is pushing harder and crushing Ukrainian morale

Vladimir Putin fires a new missile to amplify his nuclear threats

The attack on Ukraine is part of a new era of missile warfare