About the Peshmerga unification: How Can We Have an Army?

Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj How can Kurdish society build a modern army while balancing history, politics, technology, civil authority, and the Peshmerga's legacy? This may appear to be a straightforward institutional question, but it is not. The question of how to create an army in the Kurdistan Region is ultimately a question about political authority, social organization, historical experience, technology, and the relationship between the state and the forces that defend it. At the most basic level, there are two ways of thinking about this problem. We might call them thin theories and deep theories. Thin theory assumes that institutions can be separated from the societies that produce them. Under this approach, armies are broadly comparable institutions that can be constructed according to common models in different places. The assumption is that what works in one environment can, with sufficient administrative effort, be reproduced somewhere else. A similar logic is particularly domina...
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Iran War Freezes Turkey–PKK Peace Process: A Hidden Front Opening Inside the Middle East Collapse


Iran War Sends Shockwaves Into Turkey’s Internal Conflict Map

As the war involving Iran reshapes regional security, Turkey’s fragile negotiations with the Kurdistan 

By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj | Sulaimani, Iraq | 15 May 2026— Kurdish Policy Analysis

Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have effectively stalled—raising fears that one of the world’s longest insurgencies is drifting back toward escalation just as the wider Middle East enters a new phase of instability.

The Iran war has pushed Turkey’s peace process with the PKK into near standstill, as regional instability stalls negotiations and raises fears of renewed conflict across Turkey, Iraq, and Syria.

The widening war involving Iran is no longer contained within traditional battle lines. It is now reshaping internal conflicts across the region—including Turkey’s decades-long struggle with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

According to reporting from Reuters, the fragile political and security process aimed at de-escalating the Turkey–PKK conflict has effectively reached a near standstill, as both sides reassess strategy under conditions of regional uncertainty.

What was once a cautiously advancing negotiation track has now frozen under the pressure of a wider Middle Eastern war system that is pulling multiple states into reactive, defensive postures.

A Peace Process Suspended by Regional Fear

The Turkey–PKK peace track had already been delicate—built on partial ceasefires, political signaling, and conditional disarmament discussions.

But the eruption of war involving Iran has fundamentally changed the incentive structure.

Both Ankara and PKK-linked leadership structures are now operating under a shared assumption: regional outcomes must be understood before domestic commitments are made.

This has created a classic geopolitical pause—where neither side wants to make irreversible concessions while the regional balance of power is still shifting. As Reuters analysis notes, both sides are now “waiting for developments” rather than moving forward with commitments.

The Kurdish Question Re-embedded in Regional War Logic

The PKK conflict has always been more than a domestic Turkish issue. It is structurally embedded across:

  • Northern Iraq
  • Northern Syria
  • Western Iran

This is precisely why the Iran war matters.

The conflict is now interacting with:

  • Kurdish political mobilization inside Iran
  • Turkish security fears of cross-border insurgent spillover
  • Regional proxy calculations involving multiple states

Turkey has reportedly increased surveillance of Kurdish-linked networks in both Iran and Iraq amid fears of renewed mobilization triggered by the wider war.

In other words, the peace process is no longer just about Ankara and the PKK—it is now entangled in a multi-front regional security equation.

Why the Iran War Changes the Negotiation Math

Before the war, the logic of the peace process was linear:

  • Disarmament → legal reforms → political reintegration

Now the logic is circular:

  • Regional war → uncertainty → delayed disarmament → frozen reforms

This shift matters because it removes the predictability needed for political compromise.

Neither side can confidently answer:

  • What will Iran’s internal stability look like next year?
  • Will Kurdish groups in Iran gain momentum?
  • Will Turkey face cross-border security spillovers?

In this environment, negotiation becomes secondary to strategic positioning.

Domestic Politics Still Lock the Process in Place

Even without the Iran war, the Turkey–PKK process faced structural obstacles:

  • Ankara demands verified disarmament before reforms
  • Kurdish actors demand legal guarantees before disarmament
  • Mutual distrust over sequencing remains unresolved

The war has now hardened these positions rather than softened them.

According to Reuters reporting, disagreements over sequencing and political guarantees remain central unresolved issues.

The result is a diplomatic deadlock reinforced by external instability.

A Broader Pattern: Regional War Freezing Internal Conflicts

What is emerging is a wider geopolitical pattern:

When regional wars expand, internal conflicts often freeze—not because they are resolved, but because they are suspended.

This is happening simultaneously across multiple theaters:

  • Gulf maritime insecurity
  • Syria’s fragmented zones of control
  • Iraq’s contested borderlands
  • Turkey’s Kurdish negotiations

The Iran war is acting less like a single conflict and more like a regional stress amplifier.

Conclusion: A Peace Process on Pause, Not Ended—Yet

The Turkey–PKK peace process has not collapsed—but it has entered a strategic holding pattern.

The decisive factor is no longer purely Turkish domestic politics or Kurdish insurgent dynamics.

It is the regional system itself.

As long as the war involving Iran continues to reshape alliances, fears, and military calculations, internal peace processes across the region will remain vulnerable to suspension.

For now, the Kurdish question in Turkey is not moving forward or backward.

It is waiting for the region to decide what comes next.

#Turkey #PKK #IranWar #Geopolitics #MiddleEast #KurdishConflict #Erdogan #SecurityCrisis #Iraq #Syria


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