THE peace process between Turkey and its rebellious Kurds is crawling at a snail’s pace. Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), has moved to a larger cell on the prison island where he has been bargaining with Turkey’s spy chief. The semi-official Anatolian news agency has launched its first Kurdish-language service. “What of its content though, further lies?” asks one Kurdish tweeter. And what of the government’s reforms, which Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister promised in “a matter of weeks” (they may come this weekend)?

In a statement on September 9th peppered with accusations of treachery against Mr Erdogan and his Justice and Development (AK) party, the PKK said it was halting the withdrawal of fighters from Turkey to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. Mr Erdogan said he would not budge until all had gone. The PKK says it needs a gesture from the government.

The loudest demand is for Kurdish-language education in state-run schools. This would take some constitutional tweaking. A parliamentary committee to rewrite the constitution remains mired in squabbling. AK cannot push constitutional changes through parliament on its own. But it could amend terror-related articles of the penal code under which thousands of Kurds have been jailed on flimsy charges. And it could cut the 10% threshold for getting into parliament. “Kurds could be elected from western and eastern Turkey alike, share power in coalition governments, this would cement unity,” says Tahir Elci of the bar association in Diyarbakir.