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NEW YORK - Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Thursday that the call made by the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan earlier in the day to lay down arms and disband does not apply to the SDF. However, he confirmed that they had received a letter from Ocalan regarding Syrian Kurds.
“The call from Mr Ocalan was directed at the PKK and guerillas. It was directly addressed to this region. Mr Ocalan sent us, as the SDF, a letter as he did to the Kurdistan Region’s leader. It [the letter] did not address the SDF or this region directly but touched on the establishment of a ceasefire and the peaceful resolution of the Syrian crisis,” Abdi told Rudaw during an online press conference.
Ocalan said in his letter, which was read out by the delegation, which has visited him several times as part of the peace talks, that the PKK must convene and make a decision - “all groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself.”
In recent months, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) has been spearheading peace efforts between Ankara and the PKK. Earlier in February, a DEM Party delegation visited the Kurdistan Region and met with senior Kurdish officials.
The DEM Party deputy leader told Rudaw that Ocalan’s message does not apply to the SDF.
Turkey considers the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF, the Syrian offshoot of the PKK and has carried out military campaigns against the SDF in northern Syria in the last decade.
Abdi hoped that a potential ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK would bring peace to the SDF-held northeast Syria (Rojava) too.
“I believe that a ceasefire between the PKK and Turkey or a peace process [in Turkey] will have a positive impact on our region. We hope that the process will have an impact on our region,” he told Rudaw.
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