What is this 'DDR' proposed for the PKK opening anyway?!

Numan Kurtulmuş, the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) and head of the PKK commission established in Parliament, announced at the meeting the day before yesterday that they were slowly reaching the end of the hearing phase and that they would prepare proposals regarding legal regulations within the coming month.

However, about a month ago, on August 29, the same Kurtulmuş had given the following response to a question about when the commission's work would be completed:

“I would like to give a clear date for this, but the decision we made right at the establishment of the commission was for it to conclude its work on December 31, 2025; we determined this in our own directive. If necessary, it can be extended for two months, and then another two months, but my personal opinion is that it should be completed as soon as possible and that the commission should share with the Turkish public and the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey that it has fulfilled its duty.”

Did Kurtulmuş determine that the commission's work was coming to an end based on his “personal opinion”?

Perhaps. But in the meantime, the following happened:

First, the terrorist leader in Imralı, who met with his lawyers after a 6-year hiatus, referred to the commission's work and stated that “in terms of the stage reached by the peace and democratic society process, the legal solution phase has been reached, and legal solutions covering interim period laws are needed.” In the meantime, he requested that positive steps be taken regarding the “right to hope” concerning himself, and also that “an approach commensurate with his role and status as an interlocutor” be displayed, meaning he wanted to be heard by the commission.

Four days after those instructions from the terrorist leader were announced, Mehmet Uçum, Chief Advisor to the President and Deputy Chairman of the Legal Policies Board, who is part of the core team shaping the Palace's legal policies, stated that “it would be beneficial for a small delegation on behalf of the commission to conduct a hearing in Imralı.” He also announced that if the “definitive decision of the dissolved terrorist organization to lay down arms is practically confirmed,” the commission could move from the hearing activity to the stage of creating a legal proposal for the transition process; otherwise, the commission would continue its hearing activity.

As can be understood from these statements, it is obvious that the hearing phase was only done for a “wait-and-see” approach or a “one step from you, one step from us” tactic.

Parliament Should Work on a “Peace Schedule”

It is also obvious that the commission will somehow hear the terrorist leader in Imralı. Because not only Mehmet Uçum but also the MHP has given its “approval” for this.

So, what is being requested in the “legal process”?

Speaking after the DEM Party Central Executive Board (MYK) meeting the day before yesterday, Spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan emphasized that “there is a need for a radical system change in Turkey where equality is taken as a basis and no one is discriminated against,” and called for “the preparation of legal/execution regulations, the opening of communication channels for the terrorist leader, the taking of rights-based administrative-legal steps, and respect for the right to express oneself in one's mother tongue,” while requesting that “Parliament work on a peace schedule.”

Yesterday, in a statement made with the signatures of the 5 DEM members on the commission, it was claimed that the hearings had “once again revealed that a historical solution to the Kurdish issue is mandatory,” and demands that have been voiced for years were repeated.

18 Days Have Passed, the Terrorist Leader Has Not Done What Bahçeli Wanted

After all this, let us ask the following:

Has it been “confirmed” that the separatist terrorist organization, primarily its Syrian PKK branch, has laid down its arms, such that we are moving on to the “legal process”?!

Let alone the fact that even pro-government writers are saying, “Öcalan also needs to take responsibility regarding the SDF,” or rebelling by asking, “Wasn't the person at the head of this organization the spiritual son of Abdullah Öcalan; wouldn't he follow his word?”

Did the architect of this opening himself, MHP Leader Devlet Bahçeli, not feel the need to emphasize on September 2 that the SDF/YPG was not “exempt or excluded” from the call made by the “founding leader of the PKK” on February 27, after stating, “Whether the terrorist elements belonging to the dissolved PKK terrorist organization are joining the SDF/YPG in stages remains a mystery that is not yet fully clear before us.”?

And in an interview he gave to Nedim Şener from Hürriyet on September 8, did he not ask the terrorist leader to make a new statement and “remind that the February 27 call also covers the organization's branch in Syria and its structure in Europe,” saying that “the fulfillment of this call would end the debate on this issue”?

The result?

18 days have passed; but the terrorist leader has not met that demand of Bahçeli - even though he has been allowed to meet with his lawyers in the meantime!..

Pay Attention to These Proposals

Let us come to the commission's meeting the day before yesterday, where representatives of research institutions and organizations were heard.

There were those who proposed making an “imperial constitution that would encompass people from all over the world, beyond the Turkish-Kurdish debates”... And there were those who argued that Mazlum Kobani, the head of the Syrian PKK, who is still wanted by the Ministry of Interior with a red notice, should come to Ankara.

But what one person explained was important and noteworthy.

This person was Prof. Dr. Murat Yeşiltaş, Director of Foreign Policy Research at SETA.

Stating that the terrorist organization laying down its arms is only one of the first steps, Yeşiltaş said that for this to be permanent, the processes expressed as “DDR”, meaning “disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration,” should be taken into account...

He also stated that Syria is a critical field for the process to continue, but noted that linking the entire process to Syria could also create some problems...

The importance of what Yeşiltaş explained is as follows:

First; the allegation that SETA directs the Palace's foreign policies...

Second; the “DDR” formulation, meaning “disarmament, demobilization, reintegration”...

They say things like “this is local and national, there is no third eye” for this new process; let us explain where we remember this “DDR” from.

There was someone named David L. Phillips who was on the board of various organizations, primarily the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), known as the deep state of the USA. His area of expertise was the “Kurdish issue.” He had come to the Southeast 30 times just for this.

Turkey heard his name in April 2009, when the first opening was in full swing, with a secret meeting he organized at the Atlantic Council and a “Kurdish report” he prepared. That report contained proposals such as removing the expression of the Turkish state from the Constitution and changing the article related to Turkishness, granting a gradual amnesty to PKK members, and ending the rigid and unaccountable nature of the judiciary. It caused quite a controversy.

But before that, in 2007, while he was working at the American National Committee on American Foreign Policy, there was a report he prepared for the Robert Shuman Foundation. What was in the report that Phillips prepared by coming to Turkey, holding various meetings with the help and support of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then moving on to “Iraqi Kurdistan” and Baghdad?

Neutralizing the TSK (Turkish Armed Forces)... Negotiating with the PKK... Providing PKK members with a gradual opportunity for “returning home or coming down from the mountains”... Sending the top management to a third country... Reform packages... Establishing commissions in Parliament...

Also, recognizing “Barzanistan”... Giving up on Kirkuk... Sharing the Euphrates-Tigris waters...

Here is the exact name of that report:

“Disarming, Demobilizing and Reintegrating the Kurdistan Worker’s Party”

David L. Phillips later appeared at a conference on “Kobani” held at the City University of New York in 2014. Phillips, who moderated this conference attended by PYD leader Salih Müslim, whom Ankara welcomed with a red carpet during the first opening process, said the following:

“The US should remove the PKK from the list of terrorist organizations, develop relations with the PYD, and support the independence of the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Iraqi Kurdistan will be the first independent state to be declared in the world from now on. This state will establish relations with Rojava and connect the Kurds in the region to each other. This will give birth to a new Kurdish neighborhood in the new region.”

Phillips also noted that thanks to “Kobani,” the US provided weapons to the PYD and met with them, and that “Kobani” also “brought the Syrian Kurds and the PKK together, as well as bringing them together with the Iraqi Kurds, thus ensuring Kurdish unity.”

In short; it seems that with this new opening, they are saying, “Where were we?”!..

Let us end with these two statements by Bahçeli during the first opening process:

“Having the terrorist leader's message read in the TBMM and allowing it to be read is the blood-cement of the new Turkey... Equating our Kurdish-origin brothers with the PKK is a blind trap that denies the nation and dynamites the foundations of Turkey.”

Müyesser YILDIZ

September 26, 2025