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Jailed PKK leader says ready to support Turkiye-Kurdish peace initiative

December 30, 2024 at 11:03 am

Thousands of Kurds demonstrate for the release of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan in Cologne, Germany, on November 16, 2024. [Ying Tang/NurPhoto/ Getty Images]

Jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, said he is “ready” to support the peace process between Kurds and Turkiye, considering that strengthening Kurdish-Turkish brotherhood is a “historical responsibility”, two lawmakers from a pro-PKK party said yesterday.

MPs Pervin Buldan and Sirri Sureyya Onder of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), visited Ocalan in prison on Saturday and conveyed his statements in which he stressed that it is a “time of brotherhood and peace for Turkiye and the region.”

On Thursday, the Turkish Ministry of Justice approved a request submitted by DEM to visit Ocalan for the first time since his imprisonment in 1999.

The visit came two months after Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli made an unprecedented call for Ocalan to be temporarily released to address a DEM Party meeting in Parliament to instruct the PKK to lay down arms.

The MHP is part of the People’s Alliance led by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which endorses the process. The move is supported by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Read: Turkiye allows two pro-Kurdish MPs to visit imprisoned PKK leader Ocalan, in apparent efforts to reach peace deal

DEM reported that Ocalan believes he has the “capability and resolve to contribute positively to this new paradigm.”

“Our efforts will advance the country to the level it deserves and will be a guideline for a democratic transformation. It is a time of peace, democracy and brotherhood for Turkiye and the region,” Ocalan is reported to have said.

DEM’s Co-chair, Tuncer Bakirhan, considered Ocalan’s call “a historic opportunity to build a common future.”

“We are on the verge of a potential democratic transformation in Turkiye and the region. Now is the time for courage and insight for an honourable peace,” he posted on X.

The PKK is designated a terrorist organisation in Turkiye, the US and EU.

Ocalan was arrested in Nairobi in 1999, after spending years on the run. He was extradited to Turkiye, where he was tried and sentenced to death. However, in 2004, Turkiye abolished the death penalty and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.