ABSTRACT
September 5, 2013 – After months of negotiations during which both the government and the PKK accuse the other of not really pushing for progress, the PKK’s newly appointed chief, Cemil Bayık, fi nally retreats from negotiations, stating that “AKP is wasting time and delaying the process with fake initiatives. They want to fi ght, so we will defend ourselves. We are halting the guerilla’s withdrawal.” This declaration however, is partly about the looming Syria confl ict. Since its inception, the PKK thrived in unstable regions and transformed itself into a transnational and mobile enterprise. As such, postwar settings of instability have always favored the PKK; the fallout from the 1991 Gulf War could only be contained by 2000. As such, the PKK now expects that crisis in Syria will alter the transnational dynamics of Kurdish autonomy and considers leaving the table to wait for a fi nal Syrian settlement. Halting the PKK’s withdrawal from Turkish territory poses a military threat to Turkey’s own preparations for the Syrian war and opens up its cordon sanitaire on the Syrian border to fl anking PKK attacks.
