Turkey's Peace Process Under Attack, Warn Advocacy Groups
A series of recent violent incidents and political attacks in Turkey and neighboring Syria are being condemned by civil society groups as a coordinated assault on the fragile peace process and the communities advocating for it. Multiple women's, Kurdish, and LGBTI+ rights organizations are drawing direct links between physical violence, hate speech, and military action, warning they collectively aim to sabotage dialogue and escalate conflict.
The warning follows an assault on veteran Kurdish politician Leyla Zana, which socialist feminist lawmaker Özgül Saki called a direct intervention against the political space needed for a renewed "solution process" – a term for peace talks between the state and Kurdish representatives [33103]. This perspective was echoed by the Barış İçin LGBTİ+ İnisiyatifi (LGBTI+ Initiative for Peace), which stated the hatred directed at Zana is "part of a common violence directed at women, Kurds, and LGBTI people" [32276].
Simultaneously, violence in northern Syria is viewed through the same lens. The Barış İçin LGBTİ+ Initiative connected recent attacks on Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo to earlier violence against transgender people, alleging the same militias are responsible [45786]. Separately, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella group linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), warned that an assault on Aleppo was a deliberate ceasefire violation meant to disrupt the "peace and democratic society process" and predicted further escalation [48707].
Turkish civil society is actively protesting these developments. The Ankara branch of the Human Rights Association (İnsan Hakları Derneği, IHD) began a vigil demanding Turkey end its support for attacks in Aleppo, which it attributes to the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group [48962]. Furthermore, a coalition of Turkish socialist and feminist organizations issued a joint statement condemning military strikes, asserting that "peace is not to dictate Syria's future by holding Kurdish neighborhoods hostage" [44870].
Underpinning these events is a consistent argument from women's groups that militarism inherently threatens peace and equality. The "Barışa İhtiyacım Var Kadın İnisiyatifi" (I Need Peace Women's Initiative) stated that war crimes by groups like HTS represent a regional threat from "jihadist militarist male violence" to all women fighting for peace [54064]. The "We Need Peace Initiative" has staged protests demanding the national budget prioritize women's needs over warfare, arguing that a "war economy" squeezes funding for social services and anti-violence programs [29174].
Collectively, these statements from diverse advocacy groups frame the current violence not as isolated incidents, but as interconnected threats to a common goal: a negotiated end to long-standing conflict.
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