 would aim at the militant group’s dissolution, the Turkish edition of Voice of America (VOA) reported over the weekend.){kind=link}
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said any potential peace talks between his government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) would aim at the militant group’s dissolution, the Turkish edition of Voice of America (VOA) reported over the weekend.
The president was speaking during the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) 8th ordinary provincial congress in the predominantly Kurdish province of Diyarbakır on Saturday amid speculation of potential peace talks between Ankara and the PKK.
The speculation started after Erdoğan’s far-right ally, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, who is hostile to the PKK, made a call for imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to come to parliament to renounce terrorism and to disband the militant group.
Erdoğan backed the unprecedented appeal as a “historic window of opportunity.”
In his speech during Saturday’s congress, the president said the process was initiated “with the aim of removing one of the last obstacles to the goal of a great and powerful Turkey.”
“The sole purpose of the recent efforts is the dissolution of the terrorist organization, the unconditional surrender of its weapons and the complete elimination of the organization’s domination of Kurdish politics,” Erdoğan added.
He said recent critical developments in domestic politics have created a significant new opportunity to eliminate terrorism permanently, extending an invitation to all those willing to join this “sacred journey.”
Erdoğan, who met with Bahçeli on January 9, was expected to deliver important messages from Diyarbakır regarding the potential peace process.
Soon after Bahçeli’s call, Öcalan was allowed his first family visit since March 2020, prompting the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) to make its own request to the justice ministry to visit the 75-year-old PKK leader.
The party’s delegation, comprising lawmakers Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan, made its first visit in nearly 10 years in late December. Party co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan expressed hope that the talks with Öcalan would “open a new era” for a democratic resolution to the Kurdish issue.
Following their visit to Öcalan, the DEM Party delegation initiated talks with political parties. During these meetings, opposition parties expressed their desire for President Erdoğan to take a more active role and initiative in the process.
Öcalan, who founded the PKK nearly half a century ago to fight for Kurdish rights, has been held in a high-security prison on İmralı Island since 1999.
The PKK has been waging a bloody war in Turkey’s southeast since 1984, with tens of thousands of people killed in the conflict. The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.