ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish politician said on Thursday that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is not likely to lay down arms if the Turkish government does not give something in return as expectation grows that a renewed peace effort may begin.
“Before the PKK lays down its arms, it has to know what Turkey will offer Kurds, especially the PKK itself, in return for the disarmament and the halt of the war,” Mesut Tek, former president of the Kurdistan Socialist Party (PSK) in Turkey, told Rudaw.
He said that the Kurdish group is “strong” and has no reason to give up arms. “Today, the PKK rules Western Kurdistan [northeast Syria or Rojava], it controls land and it has armed forces. PKK is an influential force in Syria and the Middle East,” he noted.
Talks of a renewed drive for peace and resolution of the Kurdish issue in Turkey began earlier this month with the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli, who shook hands with MPs from the DEM Party, which he has called terrorists. Then this week, he made the unprecedented move of proposing that jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan be invited to address the Turkish parliament and declare the dissolution of his armed group.
“If the isolation of the terrorist leader [Ocalan] is lifted, let him come and speak at the DEM Party [Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party] Group Meeting in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Let him proclaim that terrorism has been completely eradicated and that the organization has been dissolved,” Bahceli said during a speech to his party’s bloc inside the Turkish parliament.
Hopes for a new peace process were fuelled when the government decided to allow Ocalan to see his family after more than four years of isolation. Communication with Ocalan would be a crucial step on the path to potential peace talks.
Ocalan's nephew and DEM Party lawmaker Omer Ocalan said in a post on X on Thursday morning that this was the first face-to-face meeting since March 3, 2020. The PKK leader was in “good health,” the nephew said.
In a subsequent post, Omer Ocalan conveyed a message from his uncle that he has the power to stop the conflict.
“The isolation continues,” the post read. “If the conditions are right, I have the theoretical and practical power to pull this process from the ground of conflict and violence to the ground of law and politics.”
Ocalan has been jailed at Imrali Island, serving a life sentence since 1999.
Founded in 1978, the PKK initially called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan but now calls for autonomy. The group is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and Western allies.
The 40-year long conflict between PKK and the Turkish state has claimed an estimated 40,000 lives.
A short-lived peace process between Turkey and the PKK in 2013 granted Kurds some rights that were previously seen as taboo, such as elective Kurdish courses at schools. Kurds have been culturally, politically, and economically repressed in Turkey for decades.
Since those peace talks collapsed in 2015, the conflict has spread to the Kurdistan Region and Rojava and at least 7,119 more people have died, according to a tally from the International Crisis Group.
Tek believes that Ankara is seeking peace with Kurds in order to save itself from other issues.
“I think the policy of the Turkish state now needs to start this process and step, because Turkey is in trouble in the region, abroad and at home, especially economically. The economic crisis, lack of justice and violence in society have reached their peak,” he said.
Hopes for peace were given a blow on Wednesday when a Turkish aerospace facility in Ankara’s Kahramankazan district was attacked. Five people were killed and 22 others were injured. Two attackers were “neutralized.”
Ankara later said the perpetrators were members of the PKK.
Later that same day, Turkey announced it had carried out strikes on alleged PKK positions in the Kurdistan Region and Syria. Ankara stated that 32 “targets belonging to terrorists were “neutralized.” Turkey uses the term “neutralize” to denote adversaries captured, wounded, or killed.
The bombardments continued in Rojava on Thursday.
Turkey’s largest pro-Kurdish political party, DEM Party, is calling for peace. “War, conflict and violence are not a path, they are not a solution,” spokesperson Aysegul Dogan said on Thursday.
“We have been saying this for years. This makes all of us, everyone, lose. Therefore, in this environment where the solution is discussed and a dialogue environment emerges, everyone who is a citizen in Turkey, from the government to the opposition, from the social opposition to the political opposition, faces a serious responsibility. We are sharing all developments with you meticulously and meticulously,” she added.
Dogan said that the Kurdish issue in Turkey will not be resolved “by ignoring, denying, or treating it as a security problem.”
Her party condemned the Ankara attack on Wednesday.
The PKK said in a statement late on Thursday that it will act according to “the process developed” by Ocalan, but warned that “it is not possible to talk about or expect development unless the isolation imposed on Leader Apo (Ocalan) is completely lifted and Leader Apo’s health, safety and working conditions are ensured.”
Regarding the Ankara attack, the PKK said that if it was involved, its armed wing the People’s Defence Forces (HPG), would make a claim of responsibility and accused the Turkish government of using such attacks as an excuse to target Kurdistan Region’s mountainous areas and Rojava.
Murat Karayilan, a PKK commander, said in an interview with a party news outlet on Wednesday that “Searches for solutions that do not center on the freedom of Leader Apo are null and void.”
While prospects for peace may seem fragile, political analyst Abdurrahim Temel said that a plan has been in the making for months.
“Letters have been received and meetings have been held. There have been telephone conversations and letters have reached the PKK and Rojava and reached many places,” he told Rudaw. “Ocalan's thoughts are in those letters. Ocalan himself wrote that letter.”
“I think that there will be a delegation coming and going between Qandil and Rojava in the coming days,” he added. The PKK’s headquarters are located in the Kurdistan Region’s Qandil Mountains.
Temel is head of Temel Strateji think tank and sat on a board of intellectuals formed by Ankara during the 2013 peace process as part of a ceasefire with the PKK. He said he knows details of the plan.
“This project, which has been prepared by the Turkish government in 15-16 months, is not only for the solution of the Kurdish problem in Turkey. According to the project, a great alliance will be established with the Kurds of the Middle East, an alliance will be established with the Kurds of the East, West and South, North,” he said, referring to Kurds living in southeast Turkey, Kurdistan Region, western Iran, and Rojava.
Leyla Zana, a veteran Kurdish politician who has spent much of her life in Turkish jails due to her struggles for Kurdish rights, said in a post on X on Thursday that “A ray of hope has dawned for all those crying out about conflicts and wars!”
“We, those who thirst for peace, will stand behind those who are trying to transform these developments into a democratic solution on a legal and political level, without any ifs or buts,” she added.
Hevidar Zana and Nwenar Fatih contributed to this article.
