Since the start of this week, all eyes in Turkey have been on the country’s parliament. A draft bill, which is due for debate in the coming days, could make a decisive contribution to resolving the so-called ‘Kurdish question’. A legislative step in this direction would be a first in Turkey’s 103-year history. Since its foundation, the country has been characterised by an anti-Kurdish state policy, which has severely hampered democratic and economic development. The bill currently under discussion is the result of negotiations between the Kurdish people’s leader, Abdullah Öcalan, and Turkish government representatives, talks that have gained significant momentum since the end of July. Öcalan has been imprisoned on the Turkish prison island of Imrali since 1999, but is still regarded as the most influential representative of the 60 million Kurds in West Asia. The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM Party, plays a key role in the negotiations. As the second-largest party in parliament, it enjoys strong support among the Kurdish population and in the country’s democratic circles. All the major opposition parties, including the Yeni Parti and the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP), also appear willing to support the bill. Should it actually be passed with support of the DEM Party and other opposition groups, Turkey will be on the cusp of a historic transformation. What has happened so farSince October 2024, Öcalan and representatives of the Turkish government have been engaged in negotiations aimed at normalising Turkish-Kurdish relations. Devlet Bahçeli, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s coalition partner and leader of the ultra-nationalist Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (MHP) party, had at the time, in a speech in the parliament, called on Öcalan to disband the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). In return, he had invited Öcalan to address the parliament, thereby indirectly holding out the prospect of his freedom. Since the PKK was founded by Öcalan in 1978, it has been regarded as the most influential voice for the Kurds’ democratic demands. In response, Öcalan addressed the public at the end of February 2025 with his historic “Call for Peace and a Democratic Society.” In it, he called for legal and political measures to democratise Turkey. Addressing the PKK, he also made it clear that it was necessary for the party to disband and renounce armed struggle against the Turkish state.The PKK subsequently took several historic steps in the course of the year. Just two days after Öcalan’s call, it announced a unilateral ceasefire. Then, in early May last year, hundreds of leading members of the Kurdish party gathered for their 12th Congress. There, they resolved to disband the PKK and declared their willingness to abandon the armed struggle. In July, 30 PKK members, including leading party cadres, symbolically burnt their weapons amid huge international media interest and called for legal guarantees to enable them to return to Turkey and participate in political life there. The party took a further important step towards rebuilding trust when it withdrew all its armed forces from Turkey in October. In parallel with these developments, regular meetings took place on the prison island of Imrali between Öcalan, representatives of the DEM party, Öcalan’s lawyers and Turkish government officials.Turkish government respondsWhilst the Kurdish side has taken far-reaching steps and, at the same time, has succeeded in communicating this to its own people, the Turkish state has so far adopted a largely wait-and-see approach. It has failed to meet the high expectations of wide sections of the country’s society. In particular, it refused to agree to the release of Öcalan and thousands of political prisoners, legal reforms to ensure the safe return of Kurdish politicians from the diaspora and of PKK members – particularly those in the Kurdish mountains of northern Iraq – the reinstatement of imprisoned Kurdish mayors in eastern Turkey and an end to the repression of opposition parties such as the CHP. The most significant step taken by the government was the establishment of a cross-party parliamentary commission in August last year, which, over the course of nearly two dozen meetings, drew up comprehensive proposals for resolving Kurdish-Turkish tensions. Another politically significant development in this context was an official visit last November by three high-ranking members of the Commission – one each from the ruling Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) and MHP and the opposition DEM party – to the prison island of Imrali for discussion on further political steps.The draft billThe draft bill, which will now be tabled in the parliament, could significantly alter the atmosphere of the ongoing negotiations.The legal guarantees would represent the first serious step taken by the Turkish government since October 2024 and would lay an important foundation for the continuation of talks with Öcalan and further reforms aimed at resolving the ‘Kurdish question’. Even the drafting of a new constitution is being considered by the government and sections of the opposition.The bill, officially called the “Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Integration,” calls for a legal status for Öcalan that would grant him unrestricted freedom to work and communicate. It is also expected that around 4,000 political prisoners will be released from Turkish prisons and that tens of thousands more politically active Kurds from the diaspora, along with several thousand PKK members, will return to Turkey to become politically active there. In a meeting with representatives of the DEM Party last Sunday (August 2), Öcalan expressed his support for the proposed legislation in the following words: “Not everything has been resolved yet. However, there is no reason for a negative attitude. What matters is that this step is understood correctly and that everyone assumes responsibility for ensuring the success of the process.”Coalition partners Erdogan and Bahceli have also repeatedly made their support for the bill clear over the past few days. According to a Turkish state news agency, Turkish President Erdogan recently described the conflict as “a burden that had cost the country more than $2.3 trillion over the past four decades” and said that “the government aims to achieve a lasting solution with the support of parliament.”Why now?The current developments are not the first attempt to restore Turkish-Kurdish relations. Numerous negotiations aimed at reaching a political solution have failed since 1993, most recently in 2015. However, the talks that have been ongoing since the end of 2024 differ in particular due to military, economic and geopolitical factors.From 2015 until the beginning of last year, the Turkish armed forces waged an all-out war against the Kurdish population in Turkey, Syria and Iraq. However, they failed to break the Kurds’ military, political and social resistance. Thousands of Turkish soldiers lost their lives in the process, especially after 2021 during operations in the mountainous terrain of northern Iraq. The extensive use of drones and fighter aircraft cost Turkey hundreds of billions of dollars. Ultimately, a military stalemate ensued, in which the Turkish army and the PKK were forced to recognise that neither side could achieve military victory.From an economic perspective, the war has led to a serious crisis. Erdogan himself put the cost of the conflict at around $2.3 trillion. The annual inflation rate in the country currently stands at up to 50%. Poverty, and even hunger, are now widespread in the country. The legal uncertainty arising from the severely weakened rule of law has made it risky – particularly for foreign investors – to invest in Turkey in the long term.Turkish government representatives also repeatedly cite geopolitical developments in West Asia to explain the negotiations with Öcalan to Turkey’s public. Since the wars in West Asia escalated in the wake of October 7, 2023, attack in Israel and now encompass almost the entire region – including Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Iran – government officials view Turkey as a potential next target. A significant number support the normalisation of Kurdish-Turkish relations as the conflict, which has been ongoing for decades, represents the country’s greatest handicap in an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment.Turkey hopes to achieve domestic stability amidst numerous flashpoints that pose a direct threat to the country, such as Cyprus, the Caucasus, Iran and the Black Sea. Öcalan has recognised this in his talks with Turkish representatives and is now offering his willingness to resolve the conflict on the basis of legally guaranteed democratic participation of the country’s Kurdish population.Possible developments in the coming monthsOver the past two years, fighting has ceased and lost trust has been restored to a certain extent. The task now is to establish the legal and political framework for long-term peace in Turkey, based on the normalisation of Turkish-Kurdish relations. The aforementioned draft legislation can be regarded as a first step in this direction. The historical scale of this conflict cannot be resolved by a single piece of legislation. Numerous further legal reforms will be needed to ensure that all Kurds living in Turkey become citizens of the country with equal rights.Furthermore, courageous steps are needed to restore democracy and the rule of law. This includes decentralisation through the strengthening of local administrative bodies, constitutional recognition of Turkey’s cultural and religious diversity – including the Kurdish community’s right to education in their mother tongue – the strengthening of parliamentary politics, end to repression against opposition parties and the reorientation of Turkish foreign policy with a focus on peaceful and respectful international relations. Should this bill be passed in the coming days with the support of the opposition parties, a long process of political and legal struggle for a democratic reorganisation of Turkey will commence. The definitive cessation of hostilities is the fundamental prerequisite for this. From now on, it will be all the more essential to involve all sections of country’s society in order to overcome the knee-jerk reactions and fears of the past 100 years and to develop a democratic culture in face of the resistance that still persists. The Kurds have used the last two years to prepare themselves for precisely this political and legal struggle. They are ready to contribute their organisational strength, political experience and democratic culture to a new era of democracy in Turkey.If successful, the political stability and economic recovery would also contribute to the interests of the whole of West Asia. Nilüfer Koç is a member of the Executive Council of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK).