Ocalan 'highly likely' to call for PKK disarmament: Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party
A much anticipated statement by jailed Kurdish militant Abdullah Ocalan will very likely include a call for the Kurdistan Workers Party to disarm, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition party has said.
ANKARA — Tuncer Bakirhan, co-chair of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), said on Tuesday that Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), is expected to urge the group to disarm. The highly anticipated address by Ocalan could come as soon as this month.
“Ocalan is readying to make a historic call in the coming days for the construction of a democratic Turkey in a bid to achieve a fundamental and lasting solution to the Kurdish issue,” Bakirhan said in an address to DEM lawmakers at the parliament.
As part of the Turkish government’s ongoing efforts to address the country’s Kurdish conflict through dialogue, DEM lawmakers held two rounds of discussions with Ocalan, who has been serving since 1999 a life sentence without parole in a Turkish prison. The PKK, which has been engaged in an armed struggle against Turkey for Kurdish self-rule for more than 40 years, is designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara, Washington, and most European capitals.
The anticipated statement by Ocalan will very likely include a call on the PKK to lay down arms, Bakirhan told reporters following his speech.
