ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) might be held in a camp in Iraq or the Kurdistan Region if they heed to their jailed leader’s call to disarm and disband, a Kurdish politician with strong ties with the Turkish authorities said. He added that top PKK administrators could be sent to Europe.
Abdullah Ocalan, the founder and leader of the PKK who has been jailed since 1999, on Thursday released a message calling on the PKK to end its decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state by disarming and dissolving itself. The group has reacted positively, but set in person meeting with Ocalan as a condition for the process to succeed.
“If weapons are to be laid down, where will they be laid down, where will those who lay down their weapons go? These matters must have been discussed. A system may have been established as well. This is not just an issue between Turkey and the PKK. This issue does not only concern the two sides. I believe that some international actors are also involved in this process,” Zekeriya Yapicioglu, president of the Kurdish-Islamic Free Cause Party (Huda Par), told Rudaw's Dilbxwin Dara following Ocalan’s call.
“If weapons are laid down, this will also affect Iraq. If this problem is solved, it will also affect the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. It will also have an impact on Syrian Kurds. So it will affect the entire region. It will have effects on Iran and Iraq as well. Therefore, I believe that a way has been found for this. Let's say a camp will be established in Iraqi territory or in the territory of the Kurdistan Region, but the administration of this camp cannot be under the PKK,” he added.
Yapicioglu has strong ties with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and has previously joined forces with his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) during elections.
Details about the post-disarmament and post-dissolution process have not been published yet but Ocalan has sent messages to the Kurdistan Region’s top officials and leaders of the ruling political parties through the delegation that met him several times in jail and carried his Thursday letter.
Yapicioglu also believes that high-ranking PKK officials and commanders could be sent to Europe, expecting some European countries to accept them without mentioning them.
The politician is confident that Washington is involved in the process.
“America is definitely involved in this as well because they have plans for Syria and Rojava [northeast Syria], they have plans for the entire region. Of course, this has been discussed, but the details are not clear, they have not been shared,” he said.
Ocalan’s call has been welcomed by many Western countries, including the US.
Yapicioglu said that even if PKK cadres are put in camps, it would be temporary until Turkey finds a permanent solution.
He added that those who “have not actually shed blood” might be allowed to return to Turkey.
PKK on Saturday declared a unilateral ceasefire with Turkey but a US-based war monitor has reported several Turkish bombardments in the Kurdistan Region since Thursday.
An estimated 40,000 people, including civilians, have been killed in four decades of conflict that has spilled over international borders.
