Is Turkey ready for new ceasefire with PKK?

Today the spokesperson for the European commissioner for enlargement and European neighbourhood policy, Maya Kosyanchich, condemned the bloodshed which has continued for one and a half months in eastern Turkey and urged Ankara and the PKK to start negotiations.

"We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks by the PKK and call for an urgent and unconditional ceasefire on all sides in order to return to the negotiating table," RIA Novosti cited her as saying.

The political analyst Hakan Aksay told Vestnik Kavkaza that a peace scenario is quite possible. "The Turkish-Kurdish war has been lasting for over 30 years. There was a truce for the last 2-2.5 years, and many people have understood that war is not necessary," he complained.

"Naturally, a truce is possible. Turkish and Kurdish peoples and organizations, the party leaders can solve their problems by peaceful means, but apparently someone's plans hinder it. I suspect President Erdogan, who wants the ruling party to win an absolute majority in parliament. And now the authorities hope that on November 1 the HDP will not overcome the 10% threshold and the ruling party will regain its majority," the expert suggested.

An expert of the Eurasian Center of the University of Ankara, political scientist Orhan Gafarli, in his turn, doubts the possibility of such a scenario. "There is an unequivocal position towards the PKK in Turkey. The PKK must lay down their arms to start the talks," he stressed.

"During the negotiating process it became clear that they not only didn't they lay down their arms, but have rather replenished their reserves. That is why the Turkish government and the opposition parties hold the unequivocal position that the PKK must lay down their arms and leave the territory of Kandil," the expert believes.

"As you know, during the last 5-7 years the government was negotiating with the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Turkey only has an interim government, which intends to solve the problem by force, calling the members of the PKK terrorists. The National Assembly of Turkey, which is composed of the President, the Prime Minister, his advisers, the management of the army and the gendarmerie, holds the same view. If the PKK states that it will lay down its arms and leave the areas bordering Iraq, then it is possible to resume dialogue," Orhan Gafarli concluded.