The Turkish government decided, on Friday, to allow party members in parliament to hold face-to-face talks with Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, in his prison on an island, the first visit of its kind in nearly 10 years.
The pro-Kurdish Equality and Peoples’ Democracy Party in Turkey said on Friday that it requested the visit last month, shortly after a key ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expanded a proposal aimed at ending the 40-year-long conflict with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which… Ankara classifies it as a “terrorist group.”
Ocalan has been serving a life sentence in a prison on Imrali Island, south of Istanbul, since his arrest 25 years ago.
Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, made this call a month after he suggested that Ocalan announce the “end of the rebellion” in exchange for the possibility of his release.
Erdogan described Bahçeli’s initial proposal as a “historic opportunity.” After the latest call last month, Erdogan said, “He completely agrees with Bahçeli on all issues, and they are working in harmony and coordination.”
Erdogan stated in a speech before parliamentarians: “Frankly, the picture before us does not allow us to be very optimistic, and despite all these difficulties, we are thinking about what can be done from a long-term perspective that focuses not only on today, but also on the future.”
Bahçeli regularly criticizes pro-Kurdish politicians as tools of the PKK, which these politicians deny.
The predecessor of the Equality and Peoples’ Democracy Party participated in peace talks between Ankara and Ocalan a decade ago, last meeting with him in April 2015. The peace process and ceasefire collapsed soon after, unleashing the bloodiest phase of the conflict.
The Equality and Peoples’ Democracy Party said that MP Seri Sorayya Onder and MP Pervin Buldan, who met Ocalan within the framework of the peace talks at that time, will travel to Imrali Island on Saturday or Sunday, depending on weather conditions.
Türkiye and its Western allies classify the PKK as a “terrorist group.”
More than 40,000 people were killed in the fighting, which in the past was concentrated in the southeast of the country, which is inhabited by a Kurdish majority, but is now concentrated in northern Iraq, where the Kurdistan Workers’ Party is based, according to Reuters.
Growing regional instability and changing political realities are seen as factors behind the attempt to end the conflict with the PKK.
Since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria this month, Ankara has repeatedly insisted on the necessity of dismantling the Kurdish People’s Protection Units forces, which it considers an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, stressing that the group has no place in Syria’s future.
The “People’s Protection Units” are the main component of the “Syrian Democratic Forces” allied with the United States.
The authorities in Türkiye continued to take strict measures against the activities of the PKK. Last month, the government replaced five pro-Kurdish mayors in cities in the southeast of the country, due to their suspected ties to the PKK, in a move that sparked criticism.
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