The Spillover Effect of the Syrian Crisis on the Peace Process in Turkey

Abstract

The Kurdish question has been one of the most protracted issues in the political history of Turkey. Given such a long securitization of the Kurdish question, it almost came to an end due to the peace process initiated by the AK Party government and the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan in 2013. Apparently it was not a solid process because it failed immediately after the June 2015 general election. There may have been many internal and external factors explaining the reason why it failed but this paper looks specifically at one of them: the influence of the Syrian crisis on the peace process in Turkey in light of spillover effects and spreading insurgency theories.