 said it was currently "impossible" for its leadership to safely meet to formally dissolve the group in line with a call by its jailed founder, Kurdish media reported on Friday.){kind=link}
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) said it was currently “impossible” for its leadership to safely meet to formally dissolve the group in line with a call by its jailed founder, Kurdish media reported on Friday.
“Every day [Turkish] reconnaissance planes are flying overhead. They are carrying out daily bombings, and they attack every day,” PKK co-leader Cemil Bayık told Kurdish television station Sterk TV.
“Holding a congress in these conditions is impossible and very dangerous.”
His remarks came two weeks after Abdullah Öcalan, who founded the PKK, urged his fighters to disarm and disband, ending a decades-long insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
In his historic call — which took the form of a letter — he urged the PKK to hold a congress to formalize the decision.
Two days later, the PKK announced a ceasefire, saying it was ready to convene a congress but said “for this to happen, a suitable secure environment must be created,” insisting it would only succeed if Öcalan were to “personally direct and lead it.”
Bayık on Thursday said the congress would take place “if the conditions were fulfilled,” according to the PKK-aligned ANF news agency.
The PKK leadership is holed up in mountainous northern Iraq, where in recent years Turkish forces have staged multiple airstrikes targeting the group, which is also blacklisted by Washington and Brussels.
Despite the negotiations, there has been no indication that Turkish troops have stopped their operations against the PKK, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warning against any delaying tactics.
“If the promises given are not kept and an attempt is made to delay … we will continue our ongoing operations … until we eliminate the last terrorist,” Erdoğan said on March 1.
On Wednesday Erdoğan said he would be willing to hold a meeting with a delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) who played a key role in relaying messages between Öcalan and Ankara — “if they ask for it.”
The party confirmed requesting a meeting but said no date had been set.
Many are hoping Öcalan’s call will ultimately result in concessions for the Kurds, who make up around 20 percent of Turkey’s 85 million population.