ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The group of communities in Kurdistan (KCK), one of the branches of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) announced on Saturday that it is ready to resume peace talks with Turkey but that Ankara is the one to take the first step.
The KCK said in a statement issued from Qandil where the PKK has its leadership base that there are efforts in and outside Turkey by friendly countries and civil society organizations for the resumption of peace talks, which they support.
“We saw the need to make our position clear,” read the statement. “We say for a solution to the Kurdish question the one that has to step forward is Turkey.”
The KCK revealed that “there are efforts on an international level and by some friendly organizations in the Kurdistan Region who insist that the HDP should return to dialogue for a solution,”
The HDP is the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democracy Party led by Selahattin Demirtas which has close ties to the PKK and seen by many as the political wing of the group inside Turkey.
The KCK said in its Saturday statement that Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) must show its goodwill “by forming a parliamentary delegation with HDP members in it to hold talks with our leader for peace,”
This is the first time the PKK sends out a message on the issue of peace talks since the process broke down following last year’s general elections in Turkey that led to more than a year of violent clashes between the group and the army.
The message goes on to say that their leader Abdullah Ocalan—in prison on Imrali Island—wants the peace talks to be inclusive of “groups in and outside parliament, civil society organizations, intellectuals and Alevis,”
“We will accept and carry out whatever is expected of us,” said the statement.
