While conservative and left-wing Turks are up in arms with the revelations of Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan’s proposals to end the terrorist upheaval in eastern and southeastern Turkey. his own people among the militant leadership and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) are also extremely uneasy that their own demands have been downgraded and that a final solution may well amount to a submission to the Turks.
On Feb. 23, three parliamentarians from the BDP — Pelvin Buldan, the chief whip of the party, as well as Sirri Sureyya Onder and Altan Tan — visited Ocalan at the prison island of Imrali where the PKK leader is serving a life sentence for treason and membership in a terrorist organization. Two Turkish officials from Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) accompanied the deputies to the island, and at least one was present at the meeting between the PKK leader and the deputies.
The visit was seen as a part of the ongoing peace process between Turkey and the militant Kurds. Ocalan presented a series of ideas that would set the course for a solution to Turkey’s Kurdish problem. According to official sources close to the meeting, Ocalan had some rather harsh words for the PKK and BDP, who he felt should set a more positive and conciliatory tone to the peace efforts and refrain from any acts or statements that would jeopardize the current positive mood in Turkey.
The BDP deputies reportedly had two reports of their own to present to Ocalan on the peace process, but the PKK leader brushed them aside. Ocalan told them he had three letters: one for the BDP, one for the PKK militant leaders holed up in the mountains of Turkey and northern Iraq, and one for the PKK leadership in Europe. He said he would not give the letters to the deputies on the island but that he would hand the letters to Turkish authorities to be presented to the BDP in Ankara. He said he expected a reply to the letters in ten days. This was seen as a form of reprimand and a message saying, “I deal with the state, I am the boss and you (the PKK people and the BDP) do things through me.”
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