Istanbul mayor's arrest throws Turkey's Kurdish peace bid into doubt

By Daren Butler

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - The detention of Istanbul's popular mayor risks undermining Turkey's move to end the PKK militant group's 40-year-old insurgency - a plan relying heavily on the government's nascent, delicate cooperation with the pro-Kurdish DEM Party.

Many Kurds worry that the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu - President Tayyip Erdogan's chief political rival - could signal an autocratic turn that will close the space for a historic reconciliation.

At stake, pro-Kurdish politicians and their voters say, is not just ending the PKK conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people and hamstrung regional development, but also prospects for democratisation in Turkey as a whole.

Such concerns were voiced among some of the tens of thousands who gathered on Friday in the main southeastern city of Diyarbakir - on the other side of the country from Istanbul - for the Kurdish Newroz spring festival.

"They speak of democracy but then detain Imamoglu. It'll hurt the peace process and people's trust in it," said Ali Okal, 57, a construction worker.

Nearby, people linked hands and danced in line to Kurdish songs, many wearing the red, green and yellow colours emblematic of Kurdish identity and chanting in support of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.

Ocalan, held in a Turkish prison since 1999, called last month for the PKK to disarm and disband. But the process has been shaken by Wednesday's arrest of Imamoglu, which has triggered protests by thousands.

One charge against him is that he aided the PKK by forming an electoral alliance with the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, parliament's third largest.

'ANXIOUS AND WORRIED'

DEM - long a target of sharp criticism by Erdogan's AK Party - played a key role facilitating the PKK disarmament call, which the government has backed.

"The people are of course anxious and worried when the government detains the mayor of Turkey's largest city," said DEM lawmaker Mehmet Zeki Irmez in the mountainous Sirnak province near the Iraqi border, one of the areas which has seen some of the most intense conflict since the PKK took up arms in 1984.

"Such steps do not pave the way for democratisation and peace... They reduce Turkey's prestige and reputation in the international arena," he said at Newroz celebrations, where many adults and youths wore the traditional Kurdish baggy trousered green outfits reminiscent of those worn by PKK militants.

The local head of the ruling AK Party in Diyarbakir, Omer Iler, said he did not think the Istanbul investigations would have a negative impact on peace efforts.

"They are two separate things," he told Reuters, a framed photo of Erdogan hanging on the wall behind him.

"Some people could use this as an excuse to sabotage the terror-free process and the beautiful atmosphere of brotherhood here, but our people will not rise to that bait," he said.

Erdogan said on Thursday that Imamoglu's party, the main opposition CHP, was seeking to cover up its own mistakes and deceive people with "theatrics", without elaborating.

Meanwhile, his nationalist ally Devlet Bahceli, who first proposed that Ocalan call on the PKK to disarm, suggested that the PKK convene a congress in early May to disband itself, a group designated as terrorist by Turkey and its Western allies.

ELECTORAL PACT

Imamoglu's detention shows that the peace process concerns Turkey as a whole because the ultimate goal was to strengthen democracy, said Ebru Gunay, a DEM deputy leader.

"What happened in Istanbul showed once again that this country needs a real democracy," she told Reuters in Diyarbakir.

Aside from corruption allegations, the main charge against the mayor results from the 2024 local election alliance between DEM and Imamoglu's CHP, dubbed the "Urban Consensus", which prosecutors say brought PKK-linked people into municipalities.

The pro-Kurdish party and its predecessors have long been accused of ties to the PKK, resulting in thousands of arrests and the ousting of elected mayors in favour of state-appointed "trustees", but the party denies the charges made against it.

The "Urban Consensus", devised by DEM in 2023, embodies one of its main aims - to strengthen local government and boost decentralisation in Turkey - alongside goals of boosting Kurdish language and cultural rights.

Gunay said the CHP was now the target of what the pro-Kurdish political movement has experienced for years.

"The government has a concept of terrorism that can be pulled in every direction," she said.

"The threat of (using government-appointed officials as) trustees, repression and arrests is imposed on Kurds, and now it's happening to Turkey's opposition. There is no guarantee that it won't happen to others tomorrow."

(Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer, Aidan Lewis)