PKK leader calls for Turkish-Kurdish reconciliation from prison

Shafaq News/ The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Leader, Abdullah Ocalan, called for strengthening ties between Turks and Kurds, a Kurdish political party in Turkiye stated on Sunday.

In a statement, the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) announced that on Saturday, two of its members visited Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence.

On Friday, Turkiye granted MPs permission to hold face-to-face discussions with the PKK leader in his island prison. This marked the first such visit in nearly a decade.

According to the party, Ocalan expressed his readiness to contribute to a peace process with Ankara, saying, "Reinforcing Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood is not only a historical responsibility but also an urgent necessity for all peoples."

In October, Omer Ocalan, Abdullah Ocalan’s nephew, revealed that his uncle expressed readiness to resolve the Kurdish issue in Turkiye.

The nephew quoted his uncle as saying, "Under 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."

Previously, the Leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli 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, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his support for this proposal.

Ocalan has been imprisoned on Imrali Island near Istanbul for 25 years. He was arrested in 1999 and has been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

The conflict between Turkiye and the PKK dates back to the early 1980s when the PKK, led by Abdullah Ocalan, began advocating for Kurdish independence within Turkiye. The violence escalated during the 1980s and 1990s, with the PKK launching guerrilla attacks and the Turkish military conducting extensive operations, particularly in southeastern Turkiye and northern Iraq.

In the early 2000s, sporadic ceasefires and peace efforts emerged, including a significant peace process in 2013. However, this initiative collapsed in 2015, reigniting hostilities between the two sides.

The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by several countries and international bodies, including, Turkiye, the US, the EU, Canada, Iran, the UK.