ERBIL, Kurdistan Region –Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu warned Monday that the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, will no longer be able to meet with Kurdish lawmakers who have been his link to the outside world.
His remarks mean that Ankara is threatening to declare an end to a peace process with the PKK that began more than a year ago, later to stutter amid complaints of foot dragging by Turkey.
“Ocalan, as a normal detainee, has all the right to see his lawyers and his close relatives. But meeting with a political party is not normal, and that party must explain his attitude on terror,” Davutoglu claimed, referring to the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
The peace process collapsed last Wednesday after the PKK claimed responsibility for assassinating two Turkish policemen. Turkey called that the end of a ceasefire, launching two days of airstrikes and shelling PKK positions in Kurdish Iraq.
“They have begun killing our soldiers, therefore we will react,” Davutoglu said.
“Unless all weapons are put down and all terrorist groups are wiped out of the land of Turkey, we do not see any benefit from visiting Imrali and seeing Ocalan,” Davutoglu added, referring to the island jail where Ocalan is kept.
