Turkey wants PKK leader Ocalan to sway Kurdish-led SDF on joining Syria army
Ankara seeks to leverage peace talks with PKK while renewing threats against the SDF.
ANKARA — Devlet Bahceli, a top political ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called on jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan Tuesday to urge the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to join the Syrian army.
As part of ongoing efforts to end the long-running conflict between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Turkey, Ocalan called in February on all PKK-linked groups to disarm and dissolve, a move the militant organization formally endorsed in May.
Turkish officials say Ocalan's appeal also applies to the Kurdish-led SDF in Syria, but the SDF has rejected this interpretation, insisting Ocalan’s call concerns only PKK fighters in Turkey and Iraq.
What happened: “The SDF … has not yet disarmed and has not complied with the Feb. 27 call from Imrali,” Bahceli said on Tuesday, in reference to the prison island off the coast of Istanbul where Ocalan has been serving a life sentence without parole since 1999.
