ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to discuss the post-conflict peace-building process between the AKP government and the PKK and the question of why the efforts to establish a perpetual peace failed. I argue that the peace process was presented as a pre-condition of democratization by the negotiating parties. Nevertheless, peace building was seen as an instrument to keep criticism away from the AKP government and the PKK. The peace process failed because it left no room for non-state actors to interact and produce a stable peace. To support my argument, I use the point of Posen, who argues that post-civil conflict societies are similar to the sovereign states of the international system. I assert that theories of international relations can be applied to post–civil conflict societies, and I present hypotheses stemming from two grand theories of international relations, realism and liberalism.
