PKK leader Ocalan ready to end violence, says nephew
Shafaq News/ On Thursday, Omer Ocalan, the nephew of the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, revealed that his uncle expressed readiness to resolve the Kurdish issue in Turkiye.
Omer Ocalan's remarks follow a "historic" initiative proposed by Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party in Turkiye, which outlined a pathway to resolving the Turkish issue on the condition that the imprisoned Abdullah Ocalan disbands his party.
Following a Wednesday visit to the PKK leader, who is imprisoned on Imrali Island, Omer Ocalan stated that his uncle “confirmed his ability to end the violence.”
The nephew quoted his uncle as saying, "With the appropriate conditions, I have both the theoretical and practical ability to shift the current situation from complexity, violence, and conflict into a legal and political framework."
In an article about the meeting, Abdul Qadir Salfi, a journalist close to the Turkish Justice and Development Party, affirmed that Abdullah Ocalan told his nephew, "I am ready to take on my historical responsibility and will ask the PKK to lay down their arms."
Previously, Devlet Bahçeli had called for the dissolution of the PKK by Ocalan's order and the initiation of a peace process with the Kurds. Turkish President and Justice and Development Party leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his support for this proposal.
Notably, the conflict between Turkiye and the PKK dates back to the early 1980s when the PKK, founded by Abdullah Ocalan, began advocating for an independent Kurdish state within Turkiye. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the conflict intensified, with the PKK engaging in guerrilla warfare and the Turkish military conducting large-scale operations against PKK bases, particularly in southeastern Turkiye and northern Iraq.
The early 2000s saw intermittent ceasefires and attempts at peace negotiations, including a notable peace process in 2013. However, this process collapsed in 2015, leading to renewed hostilities.
