Doubts and cautious hope as PKK takes a historical step to solve it

After 40 years, with 40,000 people, and without securing a Kurdish homeland, the banned Kurdistan Labor Party, the Kurdistan Workers Party, ends its war against the Turkish state.

This indicates the end of one of the longest conflicts in the world – a historical moment for Turkey, its Kurdish minority, and neighboring countries that spill the conflict.

A spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it was an important step towards a terrorist country.

But what will PKK get disarmed and solve? So far the government has not made any promises – at least publicly.

The shelter inside a sudden violent storm tea store was damaged in the old city of Diabakir, Nikitin Biez, 65, a driver, skeptical about what he might follow.

“They (the government) have been deceiving us for thousands of years,” he said.

“When I get an identity card in my pocket, saying I am Kurdish, I will think everything will be resolved. Otherwise, I don’t believe in this.”

He was sitting close to a small, woven seat, and Mom, 80 years old, was a different view.

“This is late,” he said.

“I hope this has happened ten years ago. But anyone from any side will stop this bloodshed, and salute them,” he said wandering at the top of his flat hat.

“This conflict is the brother on the brother. The person who dies in the mountains (PKK) is ours and the soldier (from the government) is ours.

“We all lose, the Turks and the Kurds.”

He wants to pardon the Kurdistan Workers’ Party fighters – like many here – and the release of Kurdish politicians in prison.

“If everything happens, it will be a beautiful peace,” he said.

In this great city of the Kurdish city in southeastern Türkiye – the realistic Kurdish capital – we found a silent response to the announcement of the Kurdistan Workers Party.

The city has been “” the city has been “” ”

The Turkish forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party have been fought in the heart of Diarartacros in 2015. You can still see the ruins of the buildings settled by the Turkish army.

Many local population told us that they welcomed peace, or the idea of ​​that, and they did not see more Turkish or Kurdish deaths.

“No one has fulfilled anything,” said Ibrahim Nazli, 63, who drinks tea under the walls of the tall city, which has warned Diyarbakir since the Roman era.

“There is nothing but harm and loss, on this side and on this side. There are no winners.”

The conflict has ranged from the mountains of northern Iraq – which has become the headquarters of the PKK in recent years – to the largest city of Türkiye.

Outside Istanbul Football Stadium in 2016, a company affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party has carried out a double leap that killed 38 police officers and 8 civilians. Many Kurds and Turks hope that this is the end of a dark chapter, which killed 40,000 people

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party decision followed its arms in February by its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Oaklan, who said that “there is no alternative to democracy.”

Currently, the 76 -year -old is still in his cell in an island prison off Istanbul, where he has been reserved since 1999.

For his supporters, he is still a heroic figure who put their case on a global agenda. They want to release him.

Menice, 47, among them. She insisted on his release was the key to the new dawn of the Kurds, who represent up to 20 % of the Turkish population.

“We want peace, but if our leader is not free, we will never be free,” she said.

“If it is free, we will all be free and the Kurdish problem will be solved.”

It is surrounded by family photos of their loved ones who died for the Kurdistan Workers Party – which is classified as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.

She lost five relatives, including her brother and older builders.

He joined the Kurdistan Workers Party in 17 years, and he died at the age of twenty -five, who was killed in a Turkish air strike three years ago.

Menice’s eyes fill with tears as she tells us how it used to help her in homework.

His method has been set.

She told us: “We called him Zindan (meaning the cell) because his father was in prison when he was born.”

One of the large pictures appears hanging on the wall of Zindan alongside his brother, Perkswindan, who followed his steps “top of the mountain” to the PKK, when he reached the age of 17.

He is now 23 years old. His mother did not know whether he was alive or dead until his family sent a picture of himself during Ramadan in March.

Minieses hopes that her remaining son will be alive.

“I hope Perkswindan and his friends will return home. As a mother, I want peace. There are no killings. Wasn’t there enough suffering for everyone?”

But do you think there can be peace between Türkiye and the Kurds?

“I believe in us, in Oaklan, and our nation (the Kurds),” she said firmly.

“The enemy (the Turkish authorities) forced us to not believe in them.”

However, the pro -men political parties have some influence.

Erdogan needs his support to enable him to run for a third term as president in the elections scheduled for 2028.

For its part, the Kurdistan Workers Party was affected by the Turkish army in recent years with the leaders and fighters who were hunted in the drone war warfare.

Regional change, in Iran and Syria, means that the armed group and its subsidiaries have less freedom of work.

Both sides have reasons to make a deal now. This may be reasons for hope.