ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) must be dissolved “without any conditions,” Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli said on Tuesday, with the country’s main pro-Kurdish party set for an expected second meeting with the jailed PKK leader. “After the second meeting to be held between the DEM delegation and Imrali, it should be declared without any conditions that the organizational existence of the PKK has ended,” the MHP cited its leader Bahceli as saying. A delegation from the main pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) was recently granted rare access to Imrali prison to meet jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. Bahceli, who was a staunch foe of DEM Party and accused it of being the political wing of the PKK, has proposed that Ocalan should address the Turkish parliament and announce the dissolution of the PKK. “This is our absolute and uncompromising expectation,” Bahceli stressed. The delegates have held a series of talks with the leaders of Turkish political parties, including Bahceli, the parliament speaker, and other influential jailed Kurdish politicians since then, carrying Ocalan’s message which advocated for “Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood,” labeling it “a critical responsibility for all peoples.” Founded in 1978, the PKK initially called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan but now calls for autonomy. The group is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey. “The east of the Euphrates should be saved from terror or it should be saved. The PKK/YPG should leave Syria and its organizational identity should be terminated,” Bahceli added. The People’s Protection Units (YPG) is a Kurdish armed force in northeast Syria that Ankara claims is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is named a terrorist organization by Turkey and the US. The YPG is the backbone of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the war against the Islamic State (ISIS). On Friday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan warned that Ankara is prepared to eliminate what it perceives as security threats in Syria, referring to the PKK and YPG. The PKK has repeatedly said that it has no presence in Rojava.
Turkey21-05-2026Suspension of main opposition leadership targets Turkey-PKK peace process: Mediating party
