Reminders

This week, for our readers, we are reminding once again of the AKP's first process opening, how the government instrumentalised the Kurdish issue for its own interests, the crises, destruction, and fractures experienced in this period, and how it concluded.

FROM DIYARBAKIR TO THE EU

The negotiations within the scope of Turkey’s accession process to the EU date back to the pre-AKP era. The DSP-MHP-ANAP coalition government had begun to take a series of structural harmonisation steps to pave the way for full membership negotiations with the EU. The steps taken, including the abolition of the death penalty, had also begun to form a significant foundation regarding the Kurdish issue. The words of Mesut Yılmaz, one of the coalition partners at the time, stating that "the path to the EU passes through Diyarbakır," were also spoken as an eloquent expression of this policy. Following the end of the government, on which Bahçeli pulled the plug, negotiations with the EU were c