Abdullah Ocalan, the founder and leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has issued a statement from prison calling upon the group to dissolve itself and lay down its arms in its fight against the Turkish state.
The group, designated a “terrorist” group by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union, has fought an armed insurgency against Turkiye since 1984, in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.
A peace process collapsed a decade ago, and the group has carried out attacks in Turkiye since then, while the Turkish military has conducted operations in the country’s southeast and across the border in Syria and Iraq.
But the chances of a rapprochement increased in the past few months, after Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, publically invited Ocalan to end the PKK’s rebellion in exchange for his release.
What did Ocalan say?
The PKK leader called for the group to do two things that would effectively end the decades-long conflict with Turkiye: lay down its arms and dissolve itself.
In a statement read on his behalf by politicians from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, Ocalan said that the PKK had been formed in response to a Turkish state that restricted Kurdish rights, but that freedoms had increased since then, and that the PKK had “reached the end of its lifespan, making its dissolution necessary”.
Framing the PKK as a product of the Cold War, Ocalan’s statement continued: “The PKK was born in the 20th century, in the most violent epoch of the history of humanity, amidst the two world wars, under the shadow of the experience of real socialism and the cold war around the world.”
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Ocalan’s statement in itself is not a formal dissolution of the PKK – in his comments he referred to a “congress” that would need to be convened to make a decision. However, Ocalan is by far the most influential voice within the PKK, and the group follows a political theory formulated by the jailed leader.
Video of Ocalan’s statement was broadcast on large screens across southeastern Turkiye, the traditional heartland for Kurdish people in the country, in a sign of the significance of his words.
What has the response been from Turkiye?
The Turkish response has been positive thus far, coming off the back of an ongoing effort to convince Ocalan to back calls for peace.
Speaking immediately after the statement was read, Efkan Ala, deputy chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) said: “If the terrorist organisation evaluates this call, lays down its weapons, disbands, it will free Turkiye from its shackles.”
But Ala added that Turkiye expected the PKK to comply with Ocalan’s call, and sources told the Daily Sabah that the PKK would “bear the consequences” if it did not “heed Ocalan’s call”.
What is the PKK and who is Ocalan?
Ocalan, who is in his 70s, is the founding leader and ideological figurehead of the PKK. He was captured by Turkish special forces in 1999 and imprisoned on an island near Istanbul, serving a life sentence in solitary confinement.
Revered by many Kurdish fighters and activists as a visionary, Ocalan has shaped the PKK’s evolution from a Marxist-Leninist insurgent group into a wider movement advocating democratic confederalism – a theory he formulated that perceives community-based democracy beyond the nation-state.
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The PKK was founded in the 1970s with a Marxist-Leninist and Kurdish nationalist ideology, and began an armed conflict against the Turkish state in 1984.
Ocalan and the PKK remain influential within the region, with Ocalan’s writings continuing to shape Kurdish political thought.
This latest initiative, if successful, could prove to be one of the “most transformative events that have happened in the Middle East”, Galip Dalay of Chatham House told Al Jazeera.
Does this mean an end to the conflict between the PKK and Turkiye?
Ocalan’s words carry a heavy weight among the PKK and its supporters, and to ignore them would carry risks for the PKK’s military leadership and arguably make them responsible for any escalation in the conflict.
But while Ocalan remains a revered figure, the PKK’s leadership is not monolithic. With its leader in jail for decades, rival factions and splinter groups, such as the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) have emerged, which might not easily accept his call to disarm.
Still, the nature of the statements from the Turkish government over the past few months make it clear that there is a push to end a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.
The PKK and its affiliates have carried out numerous attacks in Turkiye, some of which have killed civilians. Most recently, in October, an attack claimed by the PKK killed five people at the headquarters of the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) near Ankara.
Turkiye’s military forces have carried out operations against the PKK and its affiliates in southeastern Turkiye, Syria and Iraq, and some of its actions have been criticised by human rights organisations.
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Will this have any impact on the wider region?
The PKK has affiliates and allied groups in areas with Kurdish populations across Syria, Iraq and Iran.
In Syria, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Turkiye says is the local wing of the PKK, forms the bulk of the United States-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF controls northeastern Syria, and Turkiye has conducted several military operations against the group in an attempt to push it away from the Turkish-Syrian border.
The PKK has bases in northern Iraq, in areas administered by the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. Turkiye has repeatedly bombed those locations, and has its own bases in northern Iraq, which has caused tensions with the Iraqi government.
An end to the conflict would therefore potentially lead to better regional relations – although in the group’s first comments since Ocalan’s statement, the head of the SDF Mazloum Abdi said that it did not apply to Syria, even as he welcomed the PKK leader’s call.
