The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, called on the group to disarm in a historic address on Thursday, in a development that could reshape one of the longest running conflicts in the Middle East and points to shifting priorities in an evolving region.
After weeks of speculation, the militant group's controversial leader delivered a message calling on the group to lay down its arms and dissolve itself. "Convene your congress and make a decision: all groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself," he said in the message.
His message was read out in both Kurdish and Turkish during a press conference held by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (Dem Party), which has been mediating talks between Ankara and the PKK to bring an end to the decades-long insurgency. Ocalan’s statement was read first in Kurdish by Dem party official Ahmet Turk and then in Turkish by Pervin Buldan, an MP for the city of Van, to a packed conference room in an Istanbul hotel.
The Dem Party delegation sat on a stage in front of a newly released photograph of the group alongside Ocalan, who appeared to have aged considerably since he was last seen in public.
Ocalan is serving a life sentence on the island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara, south of Istanbul, where he has been imprisoned since he was captured in Kenya in February 1999. It remains unclear whether Ocalan will be released from prison in exchange for ordering the PKK to lay down its arms.
The statement came after Dem Party officials made their third visit to Ocalan since December, following an overture to Kurdish parties in Turkey by a prominent government ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Efkan Ala, vice chairman of Mr Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said he would be looking to see “results” from Ocalan’s call. “If the terrorist organisation takes this call, lays down its arms, gathers together and dissolves itself, Turkey will be freed from its shackles,” Mr Ala said in remarks reported by state news agency Anadolu.
The PKK was founded by Ocalan in 1978 and has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state for four decades, with about 40,000 killed on both sides. The group is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US, and the EU.
Ocalan’s call could have wide regional implications and has probably been influenced by the regime change in Syria, which has prompted calls for PKK-affiliated militias there to disband and join a new army controlled from Damascus.
"There are many aspects to what is going on right now, the change in Syria being one of them," a senior official from Turkey's main political opposition, the Republican People's Party, told The National before Ocalan's announcement. "President Erdogan needs a success domestically. The PKK has been weakened militarily, and so it can perhaps be forced to agree to terms more easily." The details of how Ocalan's call will play out remain unclear, however.
"The Kurdish issue is an ancient and long-term issue. It is an issue that will benefit everyone by resolving it," a senior Dem Party official told The National before Ocalan's statement. "Mr Ocalan's statement will of course mean a new period, a new stage."
The initiative began in October when Devlet Bahceli, leader of an ultranationalist Turkish party and a prominent government ally of Mr Erdogan, said Ocalan should be released on the condition that he instructs PKK leaders to disarm and enter a political process.
Mr Bahceli and his Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had for years been opposed to any rapprochement with the Kurds. Ocalan linked his order directly to Mr Bahceli's outreach to Kurdish politicians in Turkey, adding that “the will expressed by Mr President" had “created the environment” in which he demanded the PKK to dissolve and disarm.
The PKK has previously said it will not heed any calls to disarm unless Ocalan is released from jail and a meeting can take place in person, and it remains unclear if all factions within the organisation will heed the call. A political resolution has been close before, when Mr Erdogan, prime minister at the time, and Ocalan almost reached an agreement in 2015. Talks collapsed and a bloody period of fighting followed.
However, at the time, most of the PKK's fighters left to fight alongside a Kurdish militia known as the YPG in Syria, which formed the backbone of US-led efforts to fight ISIS. The extremist group is now largely defeated, and with the Assad regime gone, Kurds in Syria now face a new reality in which armed groups may be integrated into the state armed forces.
The leader of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), Salih Muslim, told Al Arabiya that he agrees with Ocalan's statement. Turkey views the PYD as the Syrian wing of the PKK. “There would be no need for weapons if we are allowed to work politically. If the reasons for carrying weapons disappear we will lay them down," he said.
While he has remained quiet on the process within Turkey, Mr Erdogan has repeatedly said that his country will not tolerate a continuing PKK presence across the border in Syria – something Ankara sees as a major national security threat.
"Terrorist organisations must understand that there is no place for them in Syria. Otherwise, we will not hesitate to take action to tell them this truth," Mr Erdogan said in remarks to carried by Turkish state media earlier this month.
The PKK, now largely confined to the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq where they are not welcomed by the local Kurdish authorities, may be left with little option but to disarm – although the conditions for it doing so remain unclear.
