On the KRG, the Turkish-Kurdish Peace Process, and the Future of the Kurds

While the Kurdish areas of the Middle East are increasingly interacting with each other and developments in one influence developments in another part, the relative influence of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the first and most important Kurdish entity, has declined of late. This is because of the emergence of the Islamic State (ISIS) as well as the Syrian Kurds’ successes – buttressed by the American air force – against ISIS. The KRG also finds itself at a disadvantage as the Turkish-Kurdish peace process has increasingly gained an independent life of its own as the ruling party in Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) which had built a close relationship with the KRG leadership, for the first time suffered significant electoral losses.

Paper produced within the framework of the project Turkey, Europe and the World [5].