Issues of Okaran, an imprisoned Kurdish PKK leader, call to lay down his arm

Abdullah Okaran, the imprisoned leader of the banned Kurdish group PKK, asked him to put his movements on his arm and disband himself.

His statement was read out in a letter from a pro-Kurdish MP, and was intended to end a 40-year armed struggle in southeastern Turkey.

Okaran, 75, met with lawmakers for several hours on Imurali, an island in the Marmara Sea, southwest of Istanbul, where he has been in solitary confinement since 1999.

His announcement comes months after Debrett Bahaselli, an ally of the Turkish government, launched an initiative to end the conflict.

“There is no alternative to democracy in the pursuit and realization of a political system,” reads Ocaran’s letter. “Democratic consensus is the basic method.”

The letter was read out by Dem members Ahmet Turkey and Pabin Burdun at a hotel in Istanbul, both Kurdish and Turkish, in Dem groups, Ahmet Turkey and Pabin Burdun, at a hotel in Istanbul.

Appeal to members of the PKK – Kurdistan Workers Party – Okaran said, “Every group must put their arms on it, and the PKK must disband itself.”

He said the movement, banned as terrorist groups in the Turkish, the EU, the UK and the US, was formed primarily because of the “closure of the waterways of democratic politics.”

However, he added that Devlet Bahceli, supported by positive signals from President Receptacle Erdogan and other political parties, created an appropriate environment for the PKK to place his arms.

Bahaseli has long called for harsh military action against the PKK, but last October he surprised his colleagues by shaking hands with lawmakers from the DEM party in Parliament. He then suggested that Okaran gave up on violence and could grant parole if he disbanded the armed group.

There was cautious optimism from several quarters, with the 40-year conflict coming to an end.

“We’ll look at the outcome,” said a key member of Erdogan’s dominant AKP, Evkan Ara.

The secular CHP, the largest opposition, said it would hold a meeting on Thursday evening.

Pervin Buldan and Dem Party colleague Sirri Sureyya Onder had already met Ocalan twice in recent weeks.

Ondar told an audience of primarily Kurdish politicians and journalists that they were at a positive turning point in history.

Kurdish leaders were very welcomed the statement, saying local reports said thousands of people would gather to see the statement on the big screen of Diyarbakir and Van cities, mainly in the southeastern Kurdish.

However, both the Kurds and the Turkish people remain important questions as to what the next step is.

Not everyone is sure things will change.

Last week, senior PKK commander Duran Kalkan warned that the ruling AKP was not looking for a solution, but would “take over, destroy, and destroy.”

Kurdish politicians and journalists faced crackdowns, and Turkish forces were engaged in military operations in Kurdistan, Iraq and northeastern Syria, he added.

“(erdogan} is inspiring and incites war like a ‘war baron’,” he told the Pro-PKK TV channel.

Turkish support forces in northeastern Syria have stepped up their campaign against the Kurdish forces and last month called on new Syrian leaders to eliminate Kurdish-led Syrian democratic troops.

Pro-Kurdish politicians have been targeted in recent years by waves of arrests and prison sentences.

Last year, two Kurdish HDP leaders, Serahatin DeMirta and Figyn Yuksekdag, were jailed for 42 and 30 years, respectively, in the deadly riots of 2014. They had already been in prison since 2016.

Kurdish politicians said it was the “black stain” of the Turkish judicial system and that HDP was subsequently reformed as the DEM party.

Around 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK rebellion began.

Violence surged in southeastern Türkiye between 2015 and 2017, causing a two-and-a-half year ceasefire to collapse.

Most recently, in October, the PKK allegedly assaulted the Turkish Aerospace Industry (TAI) headquarters near Ankara, where five people were killed.

While Okaran’s letter was being read out, the opposition good party raised a large black flag at its headquarters, remembering the victims of the PKK.