Marking the 18th anniversary of the imprisonment of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the KCK's Co-President Cemil Bayik urged the unity of all Kurdish parties in Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran, encouraging them to come forward and hold a convention to strengthen Kurdish unity.
Baiyk said the US and Russia should avoid supporting conspiracies which lead to genocides against Kurds, referring to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party and Nationalist Movement Party. He described the party as plotting to “revive this conspiracy and to conclude it by holding the Kurdish leader in captivity.”
Bayik stressed the need to hold the National Conference in 2017 as it has been delayed previously.
"If this happens in 2017, we can create developments of importance for humanity and democracy, and fail this conspiracy," he noted in PKK news sources.
The war between Ankara and the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) was reignited in 2015, ending two years of peace negotiations aimed at finally resolving the decades-old conflict.
The National Conference aimed to assemble all Kurdish political parties from the Middle East in Erbil in August 2013, but it never happened.
Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani, who had invited all Kurdish groups in the region, was seen as the driving force behind the conference, which he described as ensuring “the will of the Kurdish people in all four parts of Kurdistan is respected.”
