How the Arab Spring Transformed Turkey’s Kurdish Issue

Description

The negotiations with Kurds started before the Arab Spring. Its architects planned and initiated the process before the Arab Spring. However, the balance of power between the government and the Kurdish movement (i.e. the PKK) was dramatically changed during and after the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring linked developments have increased the PKK’s (and the Kurds’) leverage both do mestically and regionally. Contrarily, the Arab Spring weakened Turkey’s both material and symbolic capacity. Today, there are three Kurdish cantons in Northern Syria. Therefore, certain results of the Arab Spring linked developments in the region have almost made the realization of the certain targets of the Kurdish opening less likely if not totally impossible. The following article analyzes how the Arab Spring transforms the Kurdish problem in a regional context.