PKK leader calls for healing of 'broken' Turkey-Kurdish ties after decision to disarm

Abdullah Ocalan says 'major paradigm shift' is required, with relations based on 'brotherhood'

Demonstrators with flags bearing the image of Kurdistan Workers' Party leader Abdullah Ocalan, at a protest near the European Parliament in Brussels, in 2024. EPA

Ties between the Turkish state and the country's Kurdish minority need to be healed, the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) jailed leader said on Sunday, after the group's historic call to disarm.

The message from Abdullah Ocalan was transmitted through the pro-Kurdish Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) – which has been mediating the peace process with Ankara – after a visit to Imrali prison island, south of Istanbul. Ocalan has been serving a life sentence in solitary confinement there since 1999.

“What we are doing involves a major paradigm shift,” said the leader of the PKK, which is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU.

“The Turkish-Kurdish relationship is like a brotherly relationship that is broken. Brothers and sisters fight, but they can't exist without each other,” he said, calling for “a new agreement based on the concept of brotherhood”.

Ocalan's latest call for the healing of ties came after the PKK last week announced it had ended its campaign against the Turkish state. The group held a congress earlier this month where senior commanders relayed Ocalan's call in February for disarmament.

The meeting on Sunday was the fifth to take place between Ocalan and the DEM since December, with the party sending messages back and forth.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said talks were being held with authorities in Baghdad and Erbil, capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, on the mechanisms under which the PKK will hand over weapons.

“Talks are being held with our neighbouring countries on how the weapons of terrorists outside our borders will be handed over. There are plans regarding how the Baghdad and Erbil administrations will take part in this process,” Mr Erdogan said, according to a transcript of remarks he made to journalists on his return flight from Albania.

Mr Erdogan had been attending the European Political Community intergovernmental forum summit in Tirana on Friday.

Last week, the Turkish Defence Ministry said Ankara would continue military operations targeting the PKK until it is “certain” the threat is removed.

Many questions remain about how the PKK disarmament process will work in practice. It remains unclear if members will be granted an amnesty, and if those in Iraq and Syria will be allowed to return to Turkey.

The PKK was founded by Ocalan in 1978 and has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state for four decades, with about 40,000 people killed.

In recent years, the group's activity has been limited to the mountainous areas of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq and Syria, where PKK offshoots have developed a presence.