Ocalan Negotiations Impact Future of Turkish Presidency
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s negotiations with Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), are not just over a peace agreement; they have implications for the future of the Turkish presidency, writes Kadri Gursel.
![Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan arrives for the fifth United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) forum in Vienna Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan arrives for the fifth United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) forum in Vienna, February 27, 2013. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader (AUSTRIA - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3ECAG](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2013/03/1-RTR3ECAG.jpg/1-RTR3ECAG.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=3FS8lkx6)
Very interesting, moreover, very ironic.
One of them is a Kurdish leader sentenced to life and who has already spent 14 years in a special island prison in the Sea of Marmara, and the other is a prime minister who has been ruling Turkey for 10 years in an increasingly authoritarian fashion. And now the most powerful man in Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is bargaining through intermediaries with the most famous prisoner in Turkey over the new regime to be set up in Turkey.