ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior commander in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Thursday said that their jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan wants to shift the Kurdish issue “out of the realm of war and into the realm of democratization,” but accused Turkey’s ruling parties of trying to “sabotage” a nascent peace process.
Ocalan “wants to take the step he took earlier to a greater goal. He wants to deepen this step, to take the Kurdish issue out of the realm of war and into the realm of democratization,” Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council Co-Chair Cemil Bayik said during an interview with the PKK-affiliated Sterk TV after announcing that a “letter has emerged” following renewed contact with the jailed PKK leader. He did not detail the contents of the letter.
The PKK founder made a similar call for democratization of the Kurdish struggle during a failed peace process a decade ago.
Turkish state-affiliated media have speculated that Ocalan may deliver a video message on Saturday, the 26th anniversary of his arrest, and could ask his group to lay down arms.
Bayik, however, said that ending the armed fight is not the end of the struggle for Kurdish rights in Turkey.
“They say that if the PKK lays down its arms, everything will be over. That is, they do not accept the problem of the Kurdish community,” he said.
“They are deceiving society and international institutions. They say we have fought against Apo, against the PKK, against the free Kurds and we have achieved results… If the weapons are laid down, everything will be over. In other words, they want to deceive everyone like this,” he added. Ocalan is also known as Apo, meaning uncle in Kurdish.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) is currently mediating talks between Ankara and the PKK to end long-standing hostilities. Details of the process remain unclear, but DEM Party officials have said the goal is peace.
A DEM Party delegation has visited jailed PKK leader Ocalan twice in recent months. They have also held meetings with all political parties represented in the Turkish legislature.
In January, Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli, who is the mastermind of the latest peace talks, said that the PKK must be dissolved “without any conditions.”
MHP is the government ally of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Bayik accused AKP of trying to scupper the peace process.
“One could say that the AKP is doing a lot of sabotage to prevent this process from progressing,” he said. “Now Bahceli and even Erdogan are calling for leader Apo… How will leader Apo work under absolute isolation? How will they make demands and expectations of leader Apo? How will leader Apo fulfill them?”
“Absolute isolation must be lifted and leader Apo must be free” to “fulfill his hopes,” he added.
Founded in 1978, the PKK initially called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan but now advocates for autonomy. Turkey classifies the group as a terrorist organization. Since the last peace effort collapsed a decade ago, at least 7,152 people have been killed, according to data compiled by the International Crisis Group.
Erdogan warned last month that if the PKK refuses to disarm, Turkey has “the strength, means, and determination to eradicate the separatist organization.”
While expectations for these peace talks are high, clashes between Turkey and the PKK persist, especially in the Kurdistan Region where the PKK has bases.
