ASSESSMENTS

To Gain Support for Its Constitutional Reform, Turkey's Government Turns to the Kurds

Nov 5, 2024 | 20:59 GMT

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses Turkey's parliament on Oct. 1, 2024, in Ankara.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses Turkey's parliament on Oct. 1, 2024, in Ankara.

(Serdar Ozsoy/Getty Images)

In the coming months, the Turkish government will likely offer concessions to the pro-Kurdish DEM Party to gain support for a constitutional referendum that could allow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to run for reelection in 2028. However, this rapprochement could fail if the DEM Party insists on extensive demands for peace or if widespread PKK violence breaks out. On Oct. 23, Turkey's ongoing conflict with Kurdish militants was on full display when the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, exploded a bomb at the state-owned Turkish Aerospace Industries headquarters outside of Ankara, and gunmen killed at least five people and injured 22 more. However, the terrorist attack came amid signs of warming relations between the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP -- the coalition partner of Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP -- and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM Party. Speculation about efforts to mend...

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