Chatham House in London wrote about the reasons behind the strategy of the government led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Erdogan's strategy appears to be to maintain pressure on Turkey's main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), while simultaneously pursuing the peace process with the Kurds. Ankara seems to hope that ultimately, protests, including economic boycotts, will decrease. 

Asli Aydintasbas, a Kurdish affairs expert and author of the analysis, believes that peace negotiations with the Kurds in Turkey, despite the recent setbacks in democracy, are being conducted through negotiations with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) via Abdullah Ocalan, its imprisoned leader. 

The aim is to isolate Turkish Kurds from Turkey's internal opposition bloc and to exert pressure for the signing of a legal agreement between Kurds and Damascus in Syria. 

She believes that the Turkey-Kurdish negotiations also help strengthen the position of Ahmet Al-Sharaa, the interim president supported by Turkey in Syria. However, it could also help Erdogan dismantle the large electoral coalition between secularists and Kurds that the CHP has built in recent years. Ekrem Imamoglu, the imprisoned mayor of Istanbul, played a central role in this coalition. 

According to this senior expert on Turkey and Kurdish issues, Erdogan's peace process with the Kurds is at a sensitive stage because Ocalan has publicly called on the PKK to lay down its arms in exchange for the adoption of democratic policies within Turkey. 

However, the "democratic" part of this equation does not seem realistic in the current climate of Turkey. Nevertheless, a deal remains on the table that might allow Erdogan to run for the presidency for a third time. 

Regarding Erdogan's increased pressure on opponents in Turkey, she believes that what has happened in Turkey is part of a global trend of democratic backsliding. In her view, democrats worldwide should note that populism often paves the way for the rise of authoritarianism. When the seizure of power happens gradually—through the systematic erosion of media independence, judicial integrity, and oversight of institutions—restoring the previous situation may become difficult or even impossible. This is a reality that many Turks are now facing.