Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey considers a terrorist organization, may soon urge his supporters to lay down their arms and end the decades-long armed conflict with Turkey, according to Türkiye newspaper.
The reported appeal would target PKK militants in northern Iraq and Syria, as well as supporters in Europe. It could come in the form of a handwritten letter or a video message after Ocalan’s second or third meeting with representatives of the pro-Kurdish DEM party at his prison on İmrali Island. These representatives last visited Ocalan in December.
According to TGRT, Ocalan's message to the PKK is expected by mid-February at the latest.
Türkiye also claims that Turkey has handed over to Syria's new government a list of PKK-YPG leaders who must leave Syrian territory.
On January 4, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that the PKK had no choice but to surrender its arms. "They will either bury their weapons or be buried with them. There is no third option," Erdogan warned.
Öcalan, the PKK’s founder, was sentenced to death in 1999 for terrorist activities, but his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. In 2013, he called for a ceasefire, which the PKK initially upheld. However, the truce ended in 2015 following Turkish military operations in northern Iraq.
The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has persisted since 1984. Turkish authorities view the group as a national security threat and conduct frequent operations against its supporters domestically and in northern Syria and Iraq. According to Turkey's Ministry of Defense, over 3,000 PKK militants were killed in operations in these regions in the past year alone.
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Based on materials from TASS