'We want peace but have little hope' say Turkey's Kurds

DIYARBAKIR (AFP) - Rolling his cigarette between sips of tea, Suleyman Ilcan is excited about a message from jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan that could advance peace efforts, but says he has little hope.

"We are in favour of peace, we don't want war," the 35-year-old construction worker with a ginger beard told AFP at a coffeehouse in Diyarbakir, a city in the Kurdish-majority southeast of Turkey (Bakur).

"All of us are looking forward to hearing the message from 'Apo' but we don't have much hope," he said, referring to Ocalan by a nickname used by many Kurds, meaning "uncle".

Ocalan, founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, is to make "a historic call" to his followers in the coming weeks that many hope will pave the way for a democratic solution to the Kurdish question.

With peace efforts frozen for nearly a decade, Turkey's hardline nationalist MHP party offered an unexpected olive branch to Ocalan in October, urging him to renounce violence in exchange for a possible early release from Imrali island, where he has been serving a life sentence in solitary since 1999.

Backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the call has renewed hopes of an end to a conflict that has cost tens of thousands of lives.

But many in the southeast are reluctant to trust the process, recalling the tremendous wave of violence that erupted when the last peace initiative shattered in 2015.

A delegation from Turkey's main pro-Kurdish DEM party has twice visited Ocalan over the past six weeks, then sat down for talks with Turkey's main parliamentary factions.

Although no timing has been set for Ocalan's message, Kurdish politicians are confident it will be soon, and no later than Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, in March.

'Bittersweet'

Zeki Celik, who runs a silver workshop, said the idea of Ocalan giving a message "always generates excitement" in Diyarbakir.

"But it's bittersweet," the 60-year-old said, adding that many people doubted the sincerity of the government's peace overtures.

"Elected mayors are removed, there are ongoing police raids and journalists are rounded up," he said. "There's been mistrust, so we don't find it credible."

Since last year's local elections, eight DEM mayors have been removed and replaced by government-appointed administrators.

Gulsen Ozer, the DEM's co-chair in the Diyarbakir province, acknowledged the mistrust ran deep, saying it would take time to heal the wounds caused by the state.

"It's those people who lost their sons that want peace the most, because they don't want others to have the same pain. They want democracy and freedom," she told AFP.

'Bloodshed must stop'

Sedat Yurtdas of the Tigris Social Research Centre said Ankara's bid to reopen the Kurdish question was likely triggered by the regional upheaval caused by the Gaza war which set off a domino effect that toppled Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and weakened Iran.

"We are on the eve of a historical moment," he said. "The state sees the Kurdish question needs a lasting solution."

This time, he said, was different because the initiative came from the state and was made by MPH leader Devlet Bahceli, who for years was implacably opposed to any rapprochement with the Kurds.

Not everyone saw it that way, with one grey-haired coffee drinker recalling when Bahceli brought a noose to a rally in 2007, demanding Ocalan be hanged, five years after his death sentence was commuted.

"What has changed since then?" the man wondered, without giving his name.

"I don't have a grain of hope. We Kurds are always tricked by political parties. If two soldiers happen to be killed near the Iraq border, the process will be dead in the water," he said.

Despite the fear and the mutual mistrust, both sides needed the conflict to end, particularly the Kurds who were "thirsty for peace" after being traumatised by years of violence, Yurtdas said.

Restaurant owner Mustafa Kemal Sana, 52, said he wanted peace for everyone because both sides had suffered losses in the violence.

"I want neither police, nor soldiers, nor guerillas to die. The police are poor sons of Anatolia. They are our sons and brothers. We want this bloodshed to stop."