Kurds: A Key Actor in the Game of Middle Eastern Thrones

The Kurdish movements in four countries are at a crossroads and so is the region. The future of the Middle East may depend on how they on how they are positioned and by whom.

A Syrian Kurdish woman holds up a flag with Abdullah Öcalan’s image as crowds assemble in Qamishli, northeastern Syria, on 27 February 2025 to hear a message from the imprisoned PKK leader which was a call for the group to disarm and disband. Src: AFP.

Israel’s attack on Iran must have revealed to some—especially among the opposition in Turkey—the deeper motives behind Turkey’s most recent negotiations with the Kurdish movement, which culminated in the PKK’s announcement of disarmament and disbandment. A monumental event in the forty-year conflict between the Turkish state and the armed leftist group, the PKK.

The unfolding of this process has been covered in earlier posts, so I won’t revisit it here. But I would like to reiterate a few important points and summarise my arguments so far.

This process—made public around November 2024—is a curious one. It is led by the hawkish nationalist leader Devlet Bahçeli and the PKK’s founder, Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned on İmralı Island…