Abdullah Ocalan said the PKK was “running the course,” and that improved freedom of expression removed the “basic meaning.”
On Thursday, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Okaran called on terrorist groups to abandon their weapons and disband.
In a statement from a prison on Imrari island near Istanbul in Okaran, 75, he urged the PKK to hold a parliament and formally dissolve the PKK.
“We will convene Congress to voluntarily integrate with the nation and society and make decisions, as in the case of modern communities and parties whose existence is not abolished by force,” Ocaran said. “Every group must place their arms (down) and the PKK must melt itself.”
The statement was read on television by representatives of the Equality and Democrats (DEM), a pro-Kurdish party in Turkey.
“In the 1990s, the collapse of true socialism due to internal dynamics, the elimination of the country’s Kurdish identity, and the improvement of freedom of expression led to weakening the fundamental meaning of the PKK and causing excessive repetition,” Okaran said. “So we ran the course like our counterparts and needed it to break up.”
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Okaran founded the Marxist PKK in 1978, aiming for its original purpose: carving out the Kurdish state in the region. Since then, the group has eased that stance and has sought Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Türkiye.
In 1999, Okaran was captured by Turkish security forces in Kenya. He has been held in Imurali since.
The PKK is classified as a terrorist group by Ankara, Brussels, London and Washington.
Since the 1980s, thousands of people have been killed between the PKK and the Army in southeastern Türkiye.
In October 2024, Debrett Bahaselli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, a coalition partner of Turkish Recept Tayip Erdogan, suggested that if the PKK abandons violence and disbands, Okaran could be granted parole.
In his statement, Ocaran said: “The will that Debrett Bahaselli expressed by the President and the positive responses from other political parties to known calls create an environment in which I call for the laying of arms and assume the historical responsibility of this call.”
In October 2024, PKK gunmen attacked the headquarters of a Turkish defense company in Ankara, killing at least five people along with suspected perpetrators.
In response, the Turkish Air Force attacked the PKK position in Northern Iraq, where the group is based, and in Syria, where the associated groups (YPGs) have a significant presence.
On October 10, 2017, Turkish soldiers near the Turkish Syrian border near Reyhanri, Hatai, Turkey. Ilyas Akenga/AFP/Getty Images
Eight mayors of the DEM Party in eastern Turkey, where Kurdish people make up the majority of the population, have been removed from their jobs following a terrorist-related conviction.
The PKK is said to have received support from members of the Kurdish diaspora from various European countries.
“Historical and powerful”
Okaran’s statement was described as historical and powerful by Iraqi Kurdish politician Hoshiyal Zebari, who served as Iraqi foreign minister between 2003 and 2014.
Zebari, who has long maintained good relations with Ankara, said, “The timing is appropriate and will have a positive impact on northeastern Syria, Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey.”
Hundreds of people took them to the city of Kamishri, a Kurdish city in northeastern Syri, to celebrate a statement they hoped to end the conflict between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syrian Turkish support groups.
The young people are holding the flag of Abdullah Okaran, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Istanbul, Turkey on March 21, 2018. Lefteris pitarakis/ap
An estimated 15 million Kurds live in Turkey, but they are not recognized as another ethnic minority.
Millions of people live in northeastern Syria, Iraq, northwest Iraq, northwest Iran, Germany, the UK and other European countries.
In 2005, after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein overthrowed, the new constitution designated Iraqi Kurdistan as a federal organization within Iraq, recognising the status of Kurdish only official language.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report.
