ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, has called on the PKK and Turkish government to end ongoing clashes and resume negotiations, which were planned to lead to permanent peace in the country.
The Civil Peace Department, a government-backed organization which supervises the peace process between Ankara and the PKK, published a letter written by Ocalan in which the jailed leader slammed the negotiating partners for the “bloodshed.”
“Our (PKK) fighters, leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Turkish government’s officials failed to administer and commit themselves to the peace negotiations,” Ocalan wrote from his prison on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara, calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Ocalan said the two sides should immediately go back to the negotiating table and “set a timeline” for the implementation of the peace process.
The Turkish government and Ocalan struck an agreement in 2013 which would gradually end nearly 30 years of violence between the two sides, and pave the way towards a permanent peace treaty.
However, fighting between Turkish and PKK forces resumed following a bombing in the Turkish-Syrian border town of Suruc in which 32 people were killed and 104 others were wounded on July 20.
The PKK later took responsibility for killing two policemen the group accused of masterminding the bombing and having links with the Islamic State.
Turkey responded to the killings with a resumption of bombings against PKK targets in Iraq.
Five people were also killed on Friday in clashes between Turkish security forces and PKK guerillas in Silopi, Sirnak province.
Selahettin Demirtas, the leader of the pro-Kurdish HDP, who is currently in Brussels for talks with EU officials, also called on Saturday for both sides to resume talks, and urged Ankara to allow Ocalan visitations.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan said in a newspaper article earlier that the HDP could no longer visit Ocalan since they had “betrayed the peace process.”
Akdogan said Ankara would resume talks directly with Ocalan.
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