WATCH: video in Kurdish.
The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, has called for peace from his prison, saying his side is taking the initiative which the Turkish government should follow, his brother said.
Mohamad Ocalan, who visited his brother Abdullah at his Imrali island prison on Sunday – the first visit allowed to the imprisoned leader in more than a year – said that his brother also declared that the decades-old war between Turkey and the PKK would not have any winners.
Mohamad, speaking to reporters, quoted his brother as saying that the four-decade old war would not have a winner even “if it is to be continued for another eighty years."
Mohamad said his 69-year-old brother's "health is well," clearing doubts about his wellbeing in prison following a failed July 15 coup against the Turkish government that had raised concerns about Ocalan’s health.
“Abdullah Ocalan has reiterated in his talks with the government delegation to have meetings with him every 15 days in order to take the issue (peace process) seriously.” Mohamad said in Diyarbakir, among a crowd of supporters of the jailed leader.
“If the state is ready to send two men from its side… we can solve the problems in six months,” Mohamad quoted his brother as saying.
“This is a war that does not have winners or losers. This war has been going on for many years, about forty years,” Mohamad said, speaking on behalf of his brother.
“If it is to be continued for another eighty years, it will have the same results. This has to end and peace has to prevail. This is our demand to the Turkish government. This should not be done unilaterally, but has to be from both sides. We are taking the initiative for peace; Turkey should follow suit, too.”
However, Abdullah Ocalan expressed his doubts about the seriousness of the Turkish state about a peaceful solution to Turkey’s Kurdish problem.
“He said if the state were very serious, they could have implemented the peace process and solved the Kurdish issue. But it is not serious. This country does not deserve destruction and war,” Mohamad quoted his younger, imprisoned brother as saying.
Othman Ocalan, another brother of the PKK leader who was formerly a commander within the PKK, speaking in Rudaw’s studio in Erbil, said that Abdullah Ocalan has always been serious about the peace process, not in line with the leftist faction of his party.
Othman said the fact that the conflict had resumed is because neither the PKK nor the Turkish state has been serious in peace process.
“The government wanted to use the peace process to disarm the PKK, but was not serious about the process itself,” he said.
He hopes that with this announcement from his brother, “the voice of peace which has been silenced will gain momentum.”
Othman is no longer with the PKK. He left the party in 2004 and has been critical of it since.
Some 50 Kurdish politicians and activists began an indefinite hunger strike on September 5, following a meeting of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Congress (DTK). The objective was to end the isolation of the Kurdish leader and came amid concerns for his health and security. There were even doubts whether the Kurdish leader was alive after the failed Turkish coup d'état on July 15.
“His health is well, and he said tomorrow is the Eid, so congratulations of the feast to everyone” Ocalan’s brother Mohamad said.
“He sent his greetings to everyone,” Mohamad said. “The isolation policy has been imposed on Abdullah Ocalan by the state. Everyone has to know it and understand it. If this country were a country with the rule of law, they should have given all the rights to Abdullah Ocalan in prison. But none of that was given to him, although they consider their country a democratic country,” he said.
Abdullah Ocalan had not had any visitors more for than a year, since a delegation from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture was granted permission to meet with him on April 28 and 29 last year.
Ocalan’s family was last able to visit him on October 6, 2014 and a delegation from the HDP visited him on April 6, 2015.
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