The imprisoned chief of a Kurdish guerrilla motion that has been waging a bloody insurgency in opposition to the Turkish state for many years referred to as on Thursday for his fighters to put down their arms.
The Kurdistan Employees’ Occasion, or P.Ok.Ok., is assessed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the USA and different international locations. The group’s chief, Abdullah Ocalan, made his attraction in a written assertion that was learn aloud throughout a information convention by members of Turkey’s essential pro-Kurdish political social gathering who had simply visited him in jail.
Mr. Ocalan referred to as for the P.Ok.Ok. to put down its weapons, saying within the assertion that the group has accomplished its life-span and will disband.
The uncommon message from Mr. Ocalan raised the likelihood {that a} battle that has killed greater than 40,000 folks over 4 many years may lastly finish. It may additionally echo throughout borders, given Mr. Ocalan’s profound affect over members of the group in Turkey and Iraq in addition to affiliated Kurdish militias in Syria and Iran.
However there was little indication of what would occur subsequent. There was scant public dialogue of who would monitor compliance with Mr. Ocalan’s name, what would occur to fighters who adjust to it or what — if something — the federal government has supplied in alternate for the disarmament.
Mr. Ocalan’s attraction got here after a sequence of talks that included Turkish officers; Mr. Ocalan himself; and members of Turkey’s essential pro-Kurdish social gathering, the Individuals’s Equality and Democracy Occasion, or D.E.M.
In a speech to members of his political social gathering in January, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey stated the federal government had supplied Mr. Ocalan’s group no concessions however that ending the battle would profit Turks and Kurds alike.
The purpose of the talks was to get “the phobia group to disband itself, to give up its arms unconditionally,” he stated.
However in an interview revealed final week by the P.Ok.Ok.-linked Firat Information Company, a senior member of the group urged that many points remained unresolved.
“Nobody ought to suppose that there shall be a straightforward negotiation on the desk, signatures shall be made and all the pieces shall be solved,” stated the senior member, Duran Kalkan. “The opposite aspect needs to get rid of the P.Ok.Ok.”
The group has been battling the Turkish state for the reason that early Nineteen Eighties, attacking police stations and army posts and finishing up bombings which have killed many civilians. It started as a secessionist group that sought to create an impartial state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority however now says it seeks better rights for Kurds inside Turkey.
For a lot of Turks, Mr. Ocalan is the nation’s most despised terrorist. Turkish officers and information shops typically seek advice from him as “child killer” or “chief terrorist.” Convicted in 1999 of main an armed terrorist group, Mr. Ocalan has been in jail for a quarter-century. Pictures of him since have been uncommon.
Turkey and the P.Ok.Ok. have tried over time to resolve the battle, most lately by peace talks that began in 2011. However negotiations broke down in 2015, ushering in a lethal new section.
Final October, a robust political ally of Mr. Erdogan made a surprising public call to Mr. Ocalan, requesting that he inform his fighters to put down their arms and finish the battle. That led to restricted visits from kin and political allies of Mr. Ocalan to discover the potential for a brand new peace course of.
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