ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The umbrella group of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) welcomed jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan’s recent statement regarding the so called peace process in Turkey and described the call as a “historical step.”
“Ocalan’s statement is historical. If Turkey lives up to its commitments, we promise to do the same on our part,” stated the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Sunday.
“This is a great chance our leader has given to the Turkish state, in the name of our movement and nation,” it added.
The group said it would consider laying down arms in the coming Congress if the two parties reach an agreement regarding the 10 terms laid out by their jailed leader, which include, among other things, a new constitution and drawing regional and national jurisdictions.
In a statement this wekend, Ocalan said time for “lasting and stable peace” has come which requires “historical decisions.” He then called on PKK guerillas to “end armed resistance and instead resort to democratic solutions.”
The statement was read by a Kurdish MP on Turkish TV.
Turkey and the PKK have upheld a ceasefire since March 2013, bringing an end to a three-decade long conflict that has cost over 40,000 lives, mostly Kurdish.
“If the first phase of the agreement is implemented and when Leader Ocalan later, in the Turkish parliament, calls on us to lay down arms against the Turkish state, the second phase of the agreement will be completed upon which PKK will hold its Congress and decide to lay down arms,” the KCK statement said.
Sirri Sureyya Onder, a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), who relayed the message from Abdullah Ocalan on TV, said “an important period” has started in Turkey.
“We have reached a significant decision regarding the peace process and an issue that is as old as the Turkish state itself,” she said.
