CC: Burcu Ozcelik – The End of the PKK & Turkey’s Great Game

This week Thomas is joined by academic and RUSI fellow, Dr. Burcu
Ozcelik, a leading expert on Turkish domestic and foreign policy,
particularly its relations with the Kurds and the Middle East. With
a Ph.D. from Cambridge University on the topic of the PKK and their
path to political reconciliation, Burcu has written widely about
the Kurds and their relationship with the Turkish state - you can
find her work over on X @BurcuAOzcelik Burcu provides a deep dive
into the history of the Kurds, a people divided across national
borders after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and traces the
evolution of the PKK from its Marxist-Leninist, separatist origins
to a group that has now shifted its focus to achieving political
and cultural rights within Turkey. The pair also explore the
political motives of President Erdoğan and the Turkish
establishment, who are seeking to finally resolve the Kurdish issue
as a matter of long-term statecraft, before concluding with a
forward-looking analysis of Turkey's role as a rising middle power
in the post-Assad Middle East, which now prioritizes stability and
economic connectivity over past ideological ambitions. To listen to
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