The key to the process is at the Syrian threshold

Politics Service

While uncertainty over the resolution issue continues, the process has been squeezed into the Syria line. Clashes between SDG and the Şam administration in the region, and attacks by jihadist gangs in Halep have become one of the main items on the domestic political agenda, while assessments were made that the process has stalled. With no steps taken towards democratisation at home, the process which President Erdoğan and MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli described as a “Turkish Kurdish Arab alliance” with the support of PKK leader Öcalan is entirely about the redesign of the Middle East. For this reason, the direction of the process also depends on developments in the region. Statements by the actors in the process do not show that the process is over. Although Bahçeli sometimes also targets DEM Party, MHP Deputy Chair Feti Yıldız’s statements yesterday about reinstating Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer and Mardin Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ahmet Türk also drew attention.

TARGETED DEM

Meanwhile, the clashes in Syria were also on the agenda in yesterday’s group meetings of MHP and DEM Party. MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli blamed SDG for the clashes in Syria, saying “Mazlum Abdi is a supporter of Zionism and is disrespectful and disloyal to PKK’s founding leadership.” Criticising DEM Party’s Halep statement, Bahçeli said “In a process where a terror-free Turkey is being realised step by step and every kind of sacrifice is being made, suddenly taking to the streets on the pretext of Halep and, with a sharp tongue, tearing the issue from its context and exploiting it will not gain anyone anything.”

Bahçeli said “SDG/YPG has made mistake after mistake. Trump sold them out on the spot.” Emphasising that PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s call for dissolution also applies to SDG/YPG, Bahçeli said: “For us, the only valid thing is İmralı’s 27 February call which is an invitation to peace and embracing and it binds all structures of the separatist terrorist organisation. SDG/YPG is not independent of this.”

WE WILL NOT STAY SILENT

DEM Party Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan also made assessments on current developments in his party’s weekly group meeting in parliament. Speaking about the situation in Halep, Bakırhan said “A quiet genocide rehearsal was carried out in Halep and it is still continuing. The Şam regime and the gangs under Turkey’s control moved to complete the job that IŞİD left half-finished. They call the 100-year residents of Şeyh Maksud and Eşrefiye terrorists. Those who say this distort the truth and lie” and continued: “If you are looking for terrorists, look at the ISIS members who attack and kill civilians there with the ISIS emblem and at those paramilitary forces you feed. So much so that without even removing their ISIS insignia they head towards those neighbourhoods to slaughter Kurds. And they tell us ‘stay silent’. We will never stay silent.”

HERE IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY

Responding to MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli’s statements, Bakırhan said “In politics, let’s look not at what should be but at what is. Let’s look at the atrocity in Halep. It is not SDG, not the Kurds, that failed to comply with the 10 March protocol, it is the regime. With the 1 April agreement, didn’t SDG withdraw its heavy weapons from the Halep neighbourhoods? Didn’t it withdraw its armed militants? Despite this, if they are being attacked there then it is the Şam administration itself that is not complying with the 10 March protocol.” Bakırhan continued: “Those who very recently carried out open massacres of Alevis and Druze have now turned towards the Kurds. Isn’t this also a concrete fact? We will not stay silent about this, Mr Bahçeli. What falls to you is to defend the rights and the law of the Kurds there. You say Turkish Kurdish brotherhood, here is your opportunity.”

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Sürecin anahtarı Suriye kapısında, published in BirGün newspaper on January 14, 2026.