This book has analysed the influence of conflict resolution processes by focusing on non-violent, political peace efforts to bring the Northern Irish and Turkey's Kurdish conflicts to an end. Even though both ethnonationalist conflicts have similar characteristics, the Northern Irish conflict was brought to an end, but Turkey's Kurdish conflict is still ongoing. It has been argued that peacemaking efforts in Northern Ireland and Turkey have a broader scope than official negotiations. The conflict resolution processes in these two cases encouraged the conflicting sides to consider talks and to enter into a negotiation process at the pre-negotiation stage. The processes then intended to reach a peace agreement during the negotiation stage. This book has suggested that a peace agreement requires mediation by an independent third party: between the British government and their adversaries, the IRA and their political wings, in one case, and the Turkish government and their adversaries, the PKK, in the other.

To explore the impact of political resolution efforts towards ending ethnonationalist conflicts, this book has argued that it is crucial to examine three major aspects of conflict resolution processes: backchannel communications, as the unofficial aspect; peace organisations, as the informal and semi-official aspect; and official negotiations, as the official aspect (Table 2.2). There is a complementarity between the unofficial (track 1.5), informal (track-two) and official (track-one) aspects that together constitute a conflict resolution process. Both of the studied peace processes began through backchannels rather than official negotiations. Therefore, this book has demonstrated that it is crucial to engage in pre-negotiation efforts as a component of a peace process. Furthermore, P/CROs that have a direct link with the initiatives of political parties and actors have played a role in the peacemaking efforts.