The Kurdish peace process in Turkey has had a rocky road over the last two months, partly because of the Turkish government’s refusal to help defend ‘Rojava’, the Kurdish autonomous zone in Syria, from attack by the al-Qa’eda splinter group ISIS. Turkish Kurds launched massive protests calling on the government of president Erdogan to take action. Around 30 people died before Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the PKK Kurdish guerrilla army, called a halt to the demonstrations on 9 October.
The government has laid out a draft road map for the peace process that includes an amnesty for PKK fighters, and set up two institutions Öcalan had asked for: the settlement process council, and the inter-agency monitoring and coordination commissions.