Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, delegation members release a statement from the jailed leader of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP
Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was expected to make a “historic declaration” on Thursday (February 27, 2025) on ending the decades-long conflict between Kurdish groups and the Turkish State.
A delegation from the pro-Kurdish DEM party held a three-hour meeting with him early Thursday on Imrali prison island, where the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party has been jailed there in solitary confinement since 1999.
They have pledged to deliver his message at a news conference at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) inside an Istanbul hotel emblazoned with slogans reading: “A call for peace and democratic society”.
The visit comes after Ankara offered an olive branch to the 75-year-old militant leader aimed at drawing a line under a decades-long insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
“If everything goes smoothly, we expect Ocalan to make a historic declaration (on Thursday),” the party said late Wednesday.
With hopes high that he would issue a landmark call for peace, DEM was planning to set up large screens in Diyarbakir, Van and Mersin, the main cities in the Kurdish-majority southeast where large crowds began gathering, dancing and singing, AFP correspondents said.
But they were forced to change their plans after the screens were not approved by the Turkish authorities.
Similar anticipation was building in Kurdish areas in northern Syria and Iraq.
The DEM and the PKK had wanted Ocalan to issue a video message but the Turkish government refused.
Among those who travelled to Imrali on Thursday were DEM co-chairs Tulay Hatimogullari and Tuncer Bakirhan, and veteran Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk, 82, who has spent years trying to resolve the Kurdish issue.
‘I am ready’
Two months ago, Ocalan sent a message saying he had “the competence and determination” to change the situation, insisting he was “ready to take the necessary positive steps and make the call.”
Earlier this month, Bakirhan said Ocalan’s message would be “a roadmap for the democratic resolution of the Kurdish problem, taking it from an arena of violence to one of politics, law and democracy.”
Observers said he would likely urge his followers to lay down their weapons and embrace a political struggle for democracy.
But the big question is how his message will be received by fighters whose military leadership is mostly based in the mountains of northern Iraq.
The PKK also has fighters in the US-backed Syrian Defence Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria, which is seen as crucial to keeping jihadists at bay.
The force is under pressure from Syria’s new leaders — who are close to Ankara — to disarm and is also locked in clashes with Turkish-backed militia groups.
An unexpected olive branch
Since Ocalan was jailed in 1999, there have been various attempts to end the bloodshed which erupted in 1984 and has cost more than 40,000 lives.
The last round of talks collapsed amid violence in 2015.
After that, there was no contact until October when hardline nationalist MHP leader Devlet Bahceli offered Ocalan a surprise peace gesture if he would reject violence in a move endorsed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Although Erdogan extended his full support for the rapprochement in late October, he has said little since.
And his government has cranked up pressure on the opposition, arresting hundreds of politicians, activists and journalists and removing 10 recently-elected DEM mayors, all of whom have been charged with “terror ties”.
Despite the wave of arrests, many are hoping Ocalan’s call will ultimately push forward the political process and result in concessions for the Kurds, who make up around 20 percent of Turkey’s 85 million population.
Published – February 27, 2025 09:19 pm IST
