PKK in Ceasefire with Turkey (Öcalan and Erdoğan)
Kanako Mita, Nuray Lydia Oglu, and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The Kurds are stateless despite the size of their combined populations in parts of Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey being extremely high. Hence, the respective nationalisms in the above nations utilized power concentration to prevent any hope of a single Kurdish nation-state from emerging (divide and rule, persecution, ethnic cleansing, excluded politically, and other sinister realities).
Abdullah Öcalan (the founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party – PKK) announced a ceasefire with Turkey concerning the 40-year insurgency against the state apparatus of Turkey. Accordingly, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey and other elites within the PKK must take this opportunity to break the cycle of violence and build bridges (despite mutual distrust).
A letter by Öcalan was read out to his supporters in Istanbul.
Öcalan said, “All groups must lay down their arms – and the PKK must dissolve itself.”
The BBC reports, “His announcement came months after Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Turkey’s ultra-nationalist MHP party and an ally of the Turkish government, launched an initiative to bring an end to the conflict.”
Erdoğan – sensing the opportunity – said, “There is an opportunity to take a historic step toward tearing down the wall of terror that has stood between [the Turkish and Kurdish people’s] 1,000-year-old brotherhood.”
The PKK will seek the release of Öcalan, who was imprisoned (mocked and humiliated during his incarceration) in 1999.
The Guardian reports, “A ceasefire between the PKK and Turkey collapsed in 2015, prompting Ankara to renew attacks on the group using drones and airstrikes, targeting fighters across the mountains of northern Iraq. The International Crisis Group think tank estimates that more than 7,152 people have been killed in clashes or attacks in Turkey and northern Iraq in the years since, including 646 civilians, more than 4,000 militants, and almost 1,500 members of Turkish security forces.”
Many Kurds are naturally nervous – given the history of Erdoğan. For example, Turkey and its proxies are killing Kurds in northeastern Syria. Erdoğan also seeks to eliminate the Syrian Democratic Forces (Kurdish-led). Also, inside Turkey, many Kurdish politicians have been arrested and sent to jail.
The Independent reports, “On the streets of Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast, some of those who had lost relatives fighting on the side of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, were wary of placing their faith in the Turkish government. Turkey has yet to make a detailed response to the PKK’s ceasefire announcement.”
Approximately 40,000 people on all sides have been killed since the crisis first began. This includes harrowing images of captured PKK fighters being tortured by the armed forces of Turkey.
Turkey needs to release Öcalan – and other Kurdish political prisoners. If not, suspicions will remain among the Kurds in Turkey and throughout the region.
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