Influential chief information message from jail, saying ‘care and sensitivity’ wanted for peace course of.
Abdullah Ocalan, the chief of the outlawed Kurdistan Employees’ Social gathering (PKK), has introduced the top of the group’s armed battle towards Turkiye, calling for a full shift to democratic politics.
The jailed leader relayed his message through a video recording dated June, which was aired by the PKK-aligned Firat Information Company on Wednesday, describing the shift as a “historic achieve”.
“This represents a voluntary transition from the part of armed battle to the part of democratic politics and regulation,” stated Ocalan, who has been in jail since 1999, however stays a vastly influential determine amongst Kurds in Turkiye and past.
He stated the method of voluntary disarmament of Kurdish PKK fighters and the creation of a Turkish parliamentary committee to supervise the peace course of can be “essential”.
“Care and sensitivity are important,” he stated, including that particulars of the disarmament course of can be “decided and applied swiftly”.
Ocalan’s message was launched simply days earlier than the primary PKK disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq.
Again in Could, the PKK had already introduced it was disbanding after greater than 40 years of armed battle towards the Turkish state.
The announcement got here two months after Ocalan, also called “Appo” – Kurdish for Uncle – referred to as on the group to disarm in February.
For many of its historical past, the PKK has been labelled a “terrorist” group by Turkiye, the European Union and the USA.
Ocalan was born to a poor Kurdish farming household in 1948, in Omerli, Sanliurfa, a Kurdish-majority a part of Turkiye.
It was after finding out political science at Ankara College that he turned politically energetic, founding the PKK in 1978.
Six years later, the group launched a separatist riot towards Turkiye beneath his command.
Greater than 40,000 individuals have been killed between 1984 and 2024, with 1000’s of Kurds fleeing the violence in southeastern Turkiye into cities additional north.