Mr. Daventry believes that the only way for Turkey to return to the path of peace with the Kurds is the time that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is not in power.

Mr. Daventry, an expert on Turkey and the Kurdish issue, described the situation of the Kurds in Turkey as disappointing as the current Turkish government, led by the AK Party and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has dramatically changed its previous policy of peace with the Kurds.

He believes the only way to return to the path of peace with the Kurds is for the AK Party to step down, and that the older opposition parties, along with two new parties led by Ali Babacan and Ahmet Davutoglu, could oust the AK Party.

The AK Party has long since abandoned its conciliatory attitude towards the Kurdish population of southeastern Turkey as a whole. This is now a Turkish nationalist government and, although the AK Party does still attract very significant support in elections from conservative Kurds, the bigger interest is in satisfying Turkish nationalist voters elsewhere in Turkey. A message that says they are cracking down on the PKK plays very well for those voters, the expert said about Turkey’s oppressing policy against the Kurds and detaining Kurdish parliament deputies.

Answering the question if the two new opposition parties led by Ali Babacan and Ahmed Davutoglu, along with the Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) and the pro-Kurdish HDP could end to the AK party’s rule, he said that achieving the goal is possible. “There’s also Meral Aksener’s Good Party (IYI), which is a significant force in Turkish politics these days. It depends on how these five parties coordinate their messaging and strategy, and the extent to which they work together. The CHP and IYI are in an alliance that might be joined by Babacan and Davutoglu’s parties — that could be a powerful force if it happens.

“But for the AK Party has very effectively woven a narrative that portrays the HDP and the PKK as one and the same, so it is very unlikely that the HDP will join any opposition alliance. It may, however, provide implicit support like it did in local elections last year.”

“If the Turkey’s Kurdish conflict is ever going to end then, yes, there will have to be some kind of peace agreement between a Turkish government and the PKK. That’s what they tried to do as recently as 2015. That’s the only way to fundamentally resolve the conflict. But it does not seem possible that it can happen without a change of Turkish government. The AK Party has probably muddied the waters far too much on this front. Having said that, they have staged u-turns in the past,” he said about the possibility of peace talks’ resumption between AK Party and the PKK.

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