ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) commander has said that the group will not surrender arms unless the group's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan is physically freed. This comes days after the PKK announced its decision to dissolve itself and end armed struggle.
PKK media on Tuesday cited Bese Hozat, the co-chair of the Kurdistan Communities Union's (KCK) Executive Council, as saying during an interview that only Ocalan can take the weapons away from the PKK fighters. KCK is an umbrella group that includes the PKK.
"We state this openly. Only Leader Apo can take the weapons from the hands of the fighters. And this is only possible by ensuring Leader Apo's physical freedom and providing conditions for him to work freely," she said.
Ocalan, who has been jailed in Imrali prison since 1999, is also known as Apo, meaning uncle in Kurdish.
The PKK announced its dissolution and an end to its four-decade armed struggle on May 12, responding to a call from Ocalan, to end the armed fight and pursue a political and democratic path.
Ankara has welcomed the move but wants the decision to materialized. But the PKK expects democratic steps from Ankara.
"Yes, these people have ended the armed struggle method, the PKK has made this decision, they will end it, they will not conduct armed struggle. But democratic politics will replace armed struggle. These people will come, they will engage in democratic politics, they will organize democratic society. They will take part in democratic society work. Surely these people will not come and lay themselves down for destruction like sacrificial sheep. They will not be packed into dungeons," she noted.
A delegation from Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on Tuesday visited Devlet Bahceli, chairman of Turkey's far-right Nationalist People's Party (MHP), who initiated the ongoing talks between Ankara and Ocalan.
DEM Party is the main mediator of the talks and its delegations have made several visits to Ocalan and relayed his messages.
Both sides held a "comprehensive exchange of views on the developments in Turkey and the region" and the meeting took place in a "very constructive atmosphere," according to a DEM Party statement.
Omer Celik, spokesperson for Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), told reporters on Monday that the Turkish authorities are closely monitoring the PKK's decisions.
"At the stage we have reached in the upcoming period, what needs to happen is for the terrorist organization to lay down arms with all its elements and all its extensions, and to have dissolved itself. The statement made regarding dissolution and disarmament needs to be implemented concretely and completely in the field," he noted.
He also said that PKK's alleged offshoots in Syria, Iraq and Iran should also be dissolved without naming any groups.
For the first time, he announced that in addition to Baghdad and Erbil, Ankara is also in coordination with the Kurdish authorities in Sulaimani. Turkey has previously blamed the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is dominant in Sulaimani, of cooperating with the PKK.
