Terror-free Türkiye and Erdoğan’s regional peace vision

Looking back to 2025 and what is left behind in terms of domestic politics and regional developments, the terror-free Türkiye initiative has, indeed, emerged as one of the most significant developments in recent decades impacting the relationship between internal security, political legitimacy and regional order. What began as a game-changing political intervention by Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has, over the course of the year, turned into a multidimensional state project. Moreover, it has transformed the country’s four-decade fight against PKK terrorism beyond a mere hard security issue to a diplomatic bargaining and domestic political realignment.

Leading the initiative

The MHP leader’s "unexpected" call and the initiation of the process have analytical importance for modern Turkish political history, as the framing of “terror-free Türkiye” has redefined counterterrorism as a long-term state objective rather than a cyclical security response. In addition, Bahçeli, as a unique political actor in Turkish politics, framed the issue as a matter of state survival and historical responsibility, which helped consolidate nationalist legitimacy behind a process that would otherwise have faced immediate polarization. Bahçeli’s move, of course, was not a reaction limited to domestic security and political realms but rather it was one that transcends short-term plans and sought to recalibrate Türkiye’s position in the face of changing region