Sawt Falasteen - Turkey's Kurdish regions not yet ready to believe in peace process

In a slickly managed ceremony across the border in Iraq Friday, members of the Kurdish rebel group PKK destroyed their weapons as part of a peace process underway with the Turkish state.

But on the streets and in the tea houses of Hakkari, a Kurdish-majority town some 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the Iraqi border, few people express much hope that the deadly conflict is over.

Police, including undercover officers, patrol the streets of the small town and make their presence felt, an AFP team observed, which discouraged locals from wanting to talk to visiting reporters.

One tea drinker who was willing to speak asked not to be filmed.

"We don't talk about it because we never know what will happen tomorrow," he explained.

"We can say something now and tomorrow be punished for it," he added, noting that previous peace attempts have failed.

The conflict has caused 50,000 deaths among civilians and 2,000 among soldiers, according to Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

- 'All kinds of persecution' -

On the pavement in front of the restaurant where he works, Mehmet Duman raised his eyebrows. At 26, he's already seen enough to make him doubt.

"They segregated us, beat us, simply because we're Kurdish," he said. "We witnessed all kinds of persecution.

"So from now on, if the state wants a future for Turkey -- if they want Turkey to be a good environment for everyone -- they must stop all this," he said.

"The state must also take a step" to match the symbolic operation to destroy PKK weapons in Iraq.

"Turkey has won," Erdogan said Saturday, a day after the PKK's symbolic destruction of weapons signalling the start of the disarmament process.

"Eighty-six million citizens have won," he added.

While he has opened a peace process with the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, he has also continued his crackdown on opposition parties.

The government has arrested hundreds of members of the CHP, a social-democratic, secular party descended from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. The main opposition force to Erdogan, it is rising in the polls.

"Since the beginning of the peace process, Turkey has become a much more authoritarian country," said political analyst Berk Esen.

"The disarmament of a terrorist organization should, or could, lead to democratization and social peace, but it probably won't."

- Crackdown on opposition -

Those arrested include the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, the party's likely candidate in the next presidential elections, and the mayors of other major cities who took power when CHP made major gains in March 2024 local elections.

Accused of "corruption", they deny the charges against them.

The crackdown has also hit opposition media outlets, such as the Sozcu channel. It was forced into silence after 16 fines and suspensions since January -- "one every two weeks", its director, Ozgur Cakmakci, noted Tuesday evening as lights went out.

"There is little doubt that there is an intention to liquidate opposition channels as part of an authoritarian project," said Erol Onderoglu, the Turkish representative of Reporters Without Borders.

"We know what we are doing. No one should worry, be afraid, or question anything. Everything we are doing is for Turkey, for our future and our independence," he insisted.

K.Hassan--SF-PST