Kurds in the Netherlands hope for peace, but mainly have many questions and doubts. 'It is now up to the Turkish state to take a step'

The red-yellow-green Kurdish scarf of Zerya Özdemir is colorfully out of the tone of the black and white tones at the Anarchist Festival 2.DH5 in the Amsterdam Buurtcentrum Ru Paré. On a day with workshops on resilience against online hatred and climate justice, the Kurdish publisher Meyman also set up a stand. For Özdemir there are books about 'democratic confederalism', which advocates the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, about feminist ideology and stories from Kurdistan.

« There is a lot of interest in left -wing circles for our books, » says Özdemir, who came to the Netherlands from Turkey in the early 1980s. At the time, the Marxist-Leninist PKK started the armed fight against the Turkish state; Now the end of that decades of battle, which cost tens of thousands of people, is possibly in sight. They are exciting days for Özdemir and other Kurds, after the PKK Saturday announced a ceasefire. « Hopefully it will work this time, » says Özdemir.

Öcalan, who has been taking a lifelong prison sentence since 1999, shouted through a Letter read by Kurdish politicians Up to lay down the weapons and dissolve the PKK. On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly supported the trial. « It doesn't fit our country, » he wrote on X, « ignore the possibility of a solution to a problem that has demanded a large human and economic price for forty years. »

The announcement is the start of a process, of which it is still unclear what the next steps are. « We all wonder if this is genuine, » says Özdemir. « Closing peace is always the most difficult way, because there is a lot of mutual hatred. Politicians will have to explain why living together is important in a democratic way, for Kurds and for Turks. ”

ENGIN Yurtsever, who lends a hand with book sales, also tries to understand what is happening in his home country. He has been in the Netherlands for over twenty years and cannot go back to Turkey, where he was imprisoned for eight years because of his political activities. « This call did not come from one day to the next, » says the journalist, who closely follows Kurdish topicality. « An agreement has probably been concluded behind the scenes. »

We have achieved a lot in all those years, nobody can deny our presence

Doubt

Kurds in the dark about what such an agreement contains. Whatever has been agreed, – a more inclusive constitution, release of Öcalan or other prominent prisoners are all issues that are speculated in the media – Yurtsever doubts whether the Turkish state will adhere to such an agreement. He points to the history of the Turkish state, in which all population groups that did not fit within the ethnic-religious Turkish-Sunni frameworks are suppressed and prosecuted. « I fear that the State will not accept an agreement that goes beyond those frameworks. »

Yet there is also hope around the book position, although it was born out of need. « We are tired of all those years of violence, there has been enough blood, » says Handan Tufan, who visits her 'comrades'. Tufan came to the Netherlands 2017 because she was continued for her journalistic work in Turkey. « We have achieved a lot in all those years, nobody can deny our presence, » says the thirties Tufan. In the course of her life, she has gradually seen the acceptance of Kurds in Turkey change.

Tufan owes that acceptance of the Kurdish identity to the struggle of the PKK, but, according to her, also has to do with how her generation is increasingly propagating that identity despite repression. She draws the comparison with her childhood in Diyarbakir. « At home we were busy with politics, but I was told that I absolutely shouldn't talk about it at school. Otherwise my parents would end up in prison. Now my generation dares to stand up much more for the Kurdish identity. « 

If this attempt at peace fails, the young people will say: we've done everything you asked, but it just doesn't work

At the same time, Tufan and Yurtsever see how a young generation Kurds in Turkey are increasingly turning in. « The anger among the young Kurds is many times larger today than before, » says Yurtsever. « If this attempt at peace fails, the young people (to Kurdish leaders) will say: we have done everything you asked, but it just doesn't work. »

Origin of anger young people

According to Yurtsever, the origin of the anger among the young generation lies in the violence of 2015 and 2016. Then, after the failure of the peace process, the Turkish army made various cities in the southeast of the country to fight with the PKK. « The children of that time who have lost all their families and have no other language but violence, they are raised, » said Yurtsever. « The danger that for them also those who want to make peace will become the enemy. »

Yurtsever therefore sees this process as an ultimate possibility of a peaceful solution to the conflict. « But we don't see the conditions for that yet. » He mentions as examples mayors who are relieved of their position and are imprisoned, or citizens who do not income because of social media posts Turkey. « It's a bit of a schizophrenic state. On the one hand we want to be hopeful, but in practice we don't see that much concrete reason for that yet. ”

An additional difficulty is that the new peace process lacks transparency. « There is a huge question mark above this process, » says Yurtsever. « Are they going to conjure up a rabbit from the top hat like a magician? We don't know. The Kurds are ready for peace, but it is now up to the Turkish state to take a step. ”

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