ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - There will be no peace in the Middle East until the Kurdish issue is resolved, was a message from Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan when he last met his family, his nephew told Rudaw in an interview on Thursday.
“If the Kurdish issue is resolved, the Middle East issue is resolved, the future of the Middle East will be bright, but if the Kurdish and Kurdistan issues are not resolved and the Middle East is not resolved, the current Gaza will become 50 Gazas,” Omer Ocalan told Rudaw’s Mashallah Dekak, recalling a conversation with his uncle during a rare visit in October.
Noting that Kurds are key populations in multiple Middle Eastern nations, Abdullah Ocalan said that if Ankara resolves the Kurdish issue in Turkey, it could set a regional example, but if it does not, then “the Turkish state will retreat to Anatolia and live its own hell in Anatolia,” according to the nephew.
If Turkey does not prepare for a solution, neighboring countries, and other foreign powers may get involved, the PKK leader warned, according to his nephew, saying “This could be the beginning of a big war.”
Kurds are spread out over areas of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria where they have faced systemic discrimination. Founded in Turkey in 1978, the PKK initially called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan but it now calls for autonomy. The group is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara. Abdullah Ocalan has been imprisoned since 1999 and is only permitted rare visits.
Turkey is on the possible brink of a new peace process with the PKK. DEM Party started mediating talks between the Turkish state and the PKK after visiting Abdullah Ocalan last month. The pro-Kurdish party has said that its meetings with politicians from across the spectrum in Turkey about peace talks have been generally positive. Omer Ocalan is a DEM Party member of the Turkish parliament.
Earlier this month, Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli said that the PKK must be dissolved “without any conditions.”
Bahceli kickstarted the peace process last year when he proposed inviting Abdullah Ocalan to address the parliament and announce the dissolution of the PKK.
