The talks, which began in secret in 2024 and are continuing in 2025, are part of a broader initiative to end the Turkish state’s decades-long war with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to Al-Monitor.

Initial meetings were held in Europe — in France and Switzerland — between Turkish officials and senior representatives of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, Al-Monitor said, citing informed sources.

The meetings followed Turkey’s March 2024 local elections, in which the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) won nationwide for the first time with backing from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).

The election outcome prompted the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to open a new channel of negotiations with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in a bid to regain Kurdish support and secure Erdogan’s rule beyond the 2028 term limit.

Parallel to this, Turkey sought direct engagement with the Syrian Kurds, despite its ongoing military operations in northern Syria, which have displaced thousands and destroyed civilian infrastructure.

Talks with the SDF — the US-backed force that controls much of northeast Syria — gained new momentum after the fall of Bashar al Assad in December 2024, according to Middle East Eye.

The Assad regime’s replacement by a Sunni-led government under Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Islamist militant on good terms with Turkey, eased Ankara’s fears that the Kurds would again be used as a proxy against it.

Devlet Bahceli, Erdogan’s far-right ally and a longtime opponent of Kurdish rights, stunned observers in October 2024 by calling for Ocalan to be allowed to address parliament and possibly be granted amnesty if he succeeded in ending the war.

On February 27, Ocalan issued a call for the PKK to dissolve.

The PKK leadership, based in the Qandil mountains in Iraq, publicly accepted Ocalan’s call on May 12.

As part of this wider process, SDF commander Mazloum Kobane — reportedly once regarded as Ocalan’s adopted son — signed a landmark agreement with Syria’s new president in March, pledging to integrate the SDF into a future Syrian national army.

The agreement also laid the foundation for Kurdish-led governance to operate within a decentralized framework under Damascus’s oversight — an arrangement Ankara has opposed for years.

However, Middle East Eye reported that Turkey’s stance is shifting, with Ankara now open to informal Kurdish autonomy, provided it stops short of constitutional enshrinement or formal federalism.

Direct Turkish-SDF meetings, including one held last week in southern Turkey, were facilitated by the United States, Middle East Eye said, citing sources with knowledge of the negotiations.

The agenda included the possible US military withdrawal from Syria, the transfer of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) detainees and camps from SDF to Syrian government control, and the integration of the SDF into a restructured Syrian military.

Kobane confirmed the ongoing talks in a May 30 interview with Shams TV, saying the ceasefire with Turkey had held for more than two months and could evolve into something lasting.

“We are not at war with Turkey,” he said, adding that his group is prepared for improved relations.

According to Al-Monitor, Kobane was offered the possibility of meeting with either Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan or intelligence chief İbrahim Kalın if the negotiations advance.

Both the SDF and the Turkish Foreign Ministry denied such an offer had been made, Al-Monitor noted.

The reopening of the Nusaybin border crossing — closed since 2012 — is among the concessions being discussed, a step that could revitalize trade and offer an economic boost to Kurdish and Arab-majority regions under SDF control.

Still, Ankara’s key demand remains unchanged: the full elimination of PKK influence within the Syrian Kurdish administration.

A US State Department official told Middle East Eye they would not comment on private diplomacy but welcomed efforts to implement the March 10 agreement between the SDF and the Syrian government.

US envoy Thomas Barrack told Turkish media that the SDF’s continued survival depended on progress with Damascus and warned that the US military presence was being reduced, with bases shrinking from eight to five and only one likely to remain.

Ankara remains firmly opposed to any form of Kurdish federalism in Syria but now appears willing to accept a limited form of Kurdish self-governance, Middle East Eye reported.

Despite years of enmity, Turkish-SDF talks — once unimaginable — are now being quietly normalized through a web of ceasefires, diplomatic backchannels and shared concerns over post-ISIL security and regional stability.