Three weeks after jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan urged his militants to disband, Turkey's Kurds were celebrating their Newroz New Year Friday with peace prospects still remote.
The efforts to broker a solution to the decades-long Kurdish conflict have likely been complicated by the widespread unrest provoked by Wednesday's arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a key opposition figure.
"The government is dragging the country into increasing violent upheaval with its silencing of the opposition," said Tuncer Bakirhan, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish DEM, the third largest party in Turkey's parliament.
In Diyarbakir and the main cities in the Kurdish-majority southeast, thousands of people—women in traditional dresses, men in shawls—gathered to dance and celebrate Newroz, marking the arrival of spring.
Many had hoped for a message from Ocalan, who has been jailed on a prison island near Istanbul since 1999 but who still garners widespread respect, his image present at every rally.
But DEM said there would be no message from the 75-year-old as the government had not answered their request to pay him a new visit.
A DEM delegation has visited Ocalan three times in recent months, relaying his messages to the Turkish authorities and transmitting his historic February 27 call for his PKK militants to disband.
The PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, has led a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
"Since the delegation's application (for a new visit) received no response, there was no message from Mr Ocalan for this year's Newroz," DEM said.
The PKK's military leadership, which is based in mountainous northern Iraq, accepted Ocalan's call, declaring a ceasefire and pledging to hold a congress to formally disband.
But last week, the PKK said it was impossible for its leaders to safely meet given the ongoing attacks by Turkey's military.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned earlier this month there would be harsh consequences "if the promises are not kept" or the militants delayed their pledge to disarm.
To date, there has been no suggestion of when the PKK leaders would meet or whether Ocalan would be able to "direct and lead it" as they requested.
Lost momentum?
On Thursday, Erdogan's nationalist ally Devlet Bahceli -- a key figure in efforts to resume talks -- proposed they meet in Malazgirt near Lake Van in Turkey's far east on May 4.
"The separatist terrorist PKK organization must immediately convene its congress to disband and lay down its weapons, handing them over to the authorities in order to avoid spoiling the February 27 appeal," he said.
Since Ocalan's call, the Turkish military has continued its assault on Kurdish militant positions, with the PKK's co-leader Cemil Bayik on March 14 saying that holding a congress under such conditions would be "very dangerous".
Ankara is also concerned about the Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria, who form the bulk of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
When the SDF reached a deal with Damascus' new leadership in mid-March to integrate into the national government, Erdogan said it would "serve peace".
But the process has since run into difficulties.
And Ankara's growing crackdown on the opposition—notably the arrest of Istanbul's mayor and its removal of 10 DEM mayors in recent months—risks jeopardizing efforts to end the conflict with the Kurds.
"What's happening with Imamoglu, with the Turkish pro-democracy movement, and in Syria, really complicates the process that has been launched with Ocalan," said Gonul Tol, head of the Turkish studies program at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
"Right now, (the PKK) have zero motivation to do anything, given the chaos happening in Turkey," she told AFP.
"If things go more smoothly in Syria, that could give them an opening."
With AFP
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