Ahmed Turk By Zafer Yörük The Kurdish Globe Finally, the Kurdish question has been declared "the number one issue of Turkey" by the highest authority of the Turkish State, President Abdullah Gül, on 9 May 2009. Gül also stated that there were optimistic developments and that a historical opportunity for a realistic and rational solution had emerged. Gül's historical statement followed a statement by the top name of the PKK, Murat Karayılan, in an interview with the Turkish press that the PKK was ready to give up arms as part of a reasonable peace process. If these mutual statements indicate anything more than mere expressions of goodwill, then we have every reason to expect the commencement of a "peace process" in the near future. From South Africa to Nicaragua, Kosovo, Cyprus, East Timor, Angola and Palestine, we have been witnessing many "peace processes" around the world since the last decade of the twentieth century. A few of these have led