ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) appears to be moving toward disarmament and dissolution following its 12th congress earlier this week, fueling cautious optimism among pro-Kurdish parties in Turkey for a peaceful resolution to the decades-long conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state, and a renewed momentum for advancing Kurdish rights through political means.
Held from May 5 to 7, the congress came in response to a rare February message from jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who urged the group to decide on laying down arms and disbanding. The call, relayed by Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), revived hope for ending a conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives since the 1980s.
In recent months, the DEM Party had taken the lead in efforts to mediate between Ankara and the PKK. This included meetings with Turkish officials and attempts to communicate with Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on Imrali Island since 1999.
Speaking to Rudaw on Saturday, DEM Party lawmaker Saliha Aydeniz emphasized that “[concrete] steps should now be taken [to support] the existence of the Kurdish people and language, and for self-governance.”
“These are all demands of the Kurdish people, and they are also reflected in Mr. Ocalan’s [late February] appeal [to the PKK],” she said.
Fellow DEM Party lawmaker, Sinan Ciftyurek, echoed Aydeniz’s sentiment, telling Rudaw that the Turkish state must act on the Kurdish identity.
“The [Turkish] state needs to take steps, it can no longer say ‘I cannot take steps on the Kurdish issue because of the [PKK] weapons.’ It should go ahead and take steps,” Ciftyurek stressed.
Ciftyurek called for Kurdish to be recognized as “an official and educational language, for the Kurdish question to be addressed in parliament, and for Kurdish identity to be acknowledged in the constitution.”
A statement from the PKK congress committee on Friday reported that “the congress was held simultaneously in two separate locations, with delegates representing all operational areas” - an indirect reference to border regions of the Kurdistan Region near Turkey and Iran, where the PKK is said to be headquartered.
The statement added that the PKK made the decision to disarm and disband and that the results will be shared with the public “very soon.” It further urged for “the physical freedom” of Ocalan, who has been jailed at Turkey’s Imrali prison since 1999.
Turkey’s Socialist Party of Kurdistan (PSK) on Saturday welcomed the PKK’s anticipated disarmament, saying it could foster a more favorable climate for Kurds across the region, including the Kurdistan Region and northeast Syria (Rojava).
However, the PSK’s General President Bayram Bozyel told Rudaw on Saturday that the disarmament alone would not guarantee Kurdish rights and that the Turkish state did not pledge that “if the PKK lays down its arms, it will grant Kurdish rights.”
“That’s not how politics works.” Bozyel stressed that real progress requires persistent political struggle and is also “influenced by [broader] external dynamics.”
