In the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, hope and worries after the dissolution of the PKK
Since the PKK announced its self-dissolution and the end of the armed struggle, Turkish media have been multiplying reports from the predominantly Kurdish east and southeast of the country. They are taking the pulse of a population that hopes for peace but is waiting for the central government to take a step in its direction.
The announcement on May 12 by the Kurdish guerrilla group the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of an agreement in principle to lay down its arms and dissolve the organization resonates in Turkey as another step toward the possible resolution of a long-running conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives in the country over the past 40 years.
When the news broke, many journalists set out to explore the streets of the large city of Diyarbakir, in the southeast of the country, the historical and political “capital” of Turkish Kurdistan, in order to gather the opinions and feelings of its inhabitants following this agreement, which was described as historic.
BBC Türkçe visited the Sur district, which was largely destroyed during the 2015-2016 "trench war" bombings, when local PKK sympathizers took control of the streets of major Kurdish cities and fought for several months with the Turkish army and police, killing hundreds.
“We would all like to see this peace come, but I don’t believe it will happen,” says Nihat Yigit, a 51-year-old shopkeeper. “Like in previous peace processes, there will be an attack, an explosion, people will say ‘it’s the Kurds’ fault’ and it will all start again,” he worries.
Courrier International
