Berkant Gültekin
The much-discussed visit to Imrali took place the day before yesterday. A commission delegation consisting of the AKP, MHP and DEM Party travelled to the island and met with PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. Thus, Erdoğan’s statement in his speech on 12 July that ‘the AK Party, MHP and DEM have decided to walk together’ has now found its most concrete expression to date.
Erdoğan made this statement the day after the PKK’s disarmament ceremony, saying, ‘As of yesterday, the 47-year scourge of terrorism has, hopefully, entered a process of ending,’ and, in the first event showing signs of the process’s ‘success,’ he set aside his cautious stance and sought to seize the opportunity. However, in the days that followed, he preferred to observe events from a distance, again in order to avoid taking political risks.
We will learn over time how long the ‘walking together’ described by the President will last, or whether it will turn into a named or unnamed political alliance. When these words were first discussed, leading figures in the DEM Party made some statements to appease the opposition. For example, when asked about Erdoğan’s words, Pervin Buldan said, ‘Don’t misinterpret this. This is a process alliance. It was a message that the DEM Party would walk a common path with the People’s Alliance in terms of the process.’ Buldan’s words were the product of an approach that the opposition did not fully agree on, and the friction of that day resurfaced with the debate over the Imralı visit.
DETACHING THE STATE FROM POWER
There is a fundamental difference between the CHP and the DEM Party regarding the new process.
The polemics that surfaced after the CHP’s decision not to send a member to the İmralı delegation are also related to this fundamental distinction. While the CHP considers the ongoing process important and acknowledges that the Kurdish issue is a historical problem that Turkey must resolve, it does not separate this from the ruling alliance’s calculations for remaining in power. This is also the politically sensible view.
The DEM Party leadership, however, treats the process as separate from the political survival of the People’s Alliance. The statement made recently by DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları, ‘The CHP must definitely be part of this process. These talks are not with the AKP and MHP, but with the state,’ is a clear reflection of this perspective and the difference in views. The Kurdish movement is attempting to dispel the CHP’s hesitations by separating the state from the government, but this is a futile effort.
As we noted in the previous article, the fact that the process is being driven by external circumstances does not mean that the government is not instrumentalising it for the continuity of its own order. The ruling bloc is seeking ways to use the process as part of its plan to consolidate itself, and for Erdoğan in particular, the outcome of the process depends on the political benefits it will bring. We must not forget how the previous solution process ended. On the other hand, even if there is still a ‘state mind’ somewhere today, it would be a grave mistake to think that it has the capacity to transcend the current political power relations. The new equation taking shape in the region is forcing the state in Turkey to change in some respects, true; however, the ruling power mind wants to carry this change to the ground where a political cooperation that will bring it election victory is brewing. This is precisely the framework of the process being carried out today.
‘OLD CHP’ RHETORIC
Therefore, although the process addresses a fundamental and structural issue, it is not independent of the political calculations of those in power. It is normal for the CHP’s decision on İmralı to be criticised. In politics, every decision can be subject to criticism. However, interpreting this decision with clichés such as ‘the CHP has reverted to its old reflexes’ means failing to see the ruling party’s calculations or deliberately ignoring them, and it is those who hold this view who are stuck in the past, not the CHP. Because the CHP of today has been the party that has taken the most blows on the Kurdish issue in recent times, after the Kurdish movement itself. When the DEM Party was being marginalised, it found the CHP by its side and formed an alliance with it. CHP mayors faced accusations of ‘bringing Kurds into the municipality in western provinces’ and were arrested and removed from office because of the ‘urban reconciliation’. Ignoring these facts, comments such as ‘the CHP has turned its back on the Kurds’ following the Imralı decision only serve to cover up the ruling party’s pragmatic approach to the process.
The difference in their approaches to the process distinguishes the CHP from the DEM Party. The CHP is doing what it must. It is unreasonable to expect Özgür Özel and the CHP, who feel the full weight of the regime’s pressure, to rush headlong into the ‘peace convoy’ organised by the very authority that has subjected them to these hardships, while simultaneously fighting to free presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu from prison and prevent the party from being shut down. If the CHP’s decision not to go to İmralı is considered so important and criticised, the reasons for this decision should also be considered important. The extent to which these reasons are compatible with the claims of peace and democracy should be thoroughly examined. If a main opposition party with broad public support takes issue with a critical step taken in the process, one should not resort to the easy option of approaching the situation with old clichés. Political consistency and responsibility demand this.
‘PEACE’ AS THE COUNTRY SLIDES INTO DARKNESS?
The AKP-MHP government is trying to drag the country step by step into a place even darker than it is today by pushing the limits of authoritarianism. In this period of siege, where the intensity of repression increases day by day, where politicians, journalists and citizens exercising their most basic democratic rights are arrested and sent to prison, economic prosperity is also quite distant from society. We live in a system of extreme injustice, where millions of citizens, Turks and Kurds alike, struggle to survive, while a small minority grows richer by the day. The architects of this system can only be the subjects of a democratic political transformation process aimed at removing them from their positions; no other process, especially not a ‘peace and democracy’ process, can achieve this. Those who call themselves ‘the opposition’ have no other duty than this.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled CHP ve DEM Parti nerede ayrıştı?, published in BirGün newspaper on November 26, 2025.
