The United States will also have to open a path to political engagement with the PKK, rather than continuing to treat it as a security problem. The group’s leadership has made several serious calls for a return to negotiations. In May, imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan issued a statement through his lawyers reaffirming his support for peace in Turkey and calling on the SDF to commit to a political solution that respected Turkish concerns—just days before SDF commander General Mazlum Kobane revealed that the SDF and Turkey were engaging in talks through an intermediary. And in July, the Washington Post published an editorial from PKK co-founder Cemil Bayik, where he stated that the organization “once again declare[s] that we are committed to negotiating a political solution of the Kurdish question within Turkey’s borders.”

If further steps toward renewed talks happen, the United States could consider removing the rewards placed on members of the group’s leadership—which were imposed more out of capitulation to Turkish demands than actual security needs.

From ‘Safe Zone’ to Solution

A new strategy that recognizes the reality of Turkey’s autocratic turn, moves beyond military-focused engagement with Kurdish groups, and addresses the cross-border nature of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict would address all of the problems that the safe zone claims to solve at their roots. Turkey will have little to fear from an SDF presence on its border if it resolves its own Kurdish question: during the last attempt at negotiations, there were efforts towards Turkish-YPG diplomatic and military cooperation. A peace process in Turkey would also address the authoritarian character of the state that has allowed its current government to ally itself with autocrats around the world. This would lead to a more sensible Turkish foreign policy in Syria and beyond— certainly something the United States has been looking for.

Such a change would also be a step towards an updated American view of the region: one that recognizes the Kurdish people as a democratizing force in a crucial location at a time when so much of the world is shifting towards authoritarianism. The compartmentalized view of the Kurdish question that the United States has historically held could be replaced with a coherent Kurdish policy—a move that would benefit the U.S. approach to multiple regional challenges.

Giran Ozcan is a representative of Turkey’s Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) to the USA. 

Image: Reuters