The reports of a resumption of negotiations between Turkey and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan represent one of the positive developments of early 2013. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is highly popular among his public, and one of the major expectations of him is that he will be able to achieve a solution to this painful issue, which has already caused the death of 40,000 people in Turkey, including 700 in 2012. While under Erdoğan Turkey has made unprecedented progress towards a solution,recently, however, and especially since the 2011 parliamentary elections, it appeared that the "Kurdish Opening" had come to a halt.
