PKK executive accuses Turkey of undermining group’s efforts to disband

One of the senior leaders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Wednesday said that some parts of the Turkish government are seeking to undermine a process aimed at the group’s disbanding to put an end to decades of conflict.

The PKK in May declared an end to its armed conflict and was expected to hold a series of ceremonies to destroy its weapons.

But Mustafa Karasu, one of the group’s founders and top leaders, told a Kurdish-linked television station that “a group at the heart of the state is seeking to sabotage the process.”

“We are ready, but it is the [Turkish] government that has not taken the needed steps,” he said.

Karasu cited continued Turkish military strikes on PKK positions in northern Iraq as well as the lack of improvement in the prison conditions of the PKK’s founder, Abdullah Öcalan.

Öcalan, now 76, has been held at the İmralı Island prison since 1999. In February he called on the PKK to lay down its weapons after decades of conflict with the Turkish state that has left at least 45,000 people dead.

“Some friends have gone to İmralı, but it’s not enough. The isolation has lasted for 26 years,” despite some adjustments, Karasu said.

“The situation of our leader affects the process and slows it down,” he said.

Karasu did not confirm if any laying down of weapons ceremonies were still planned.

“We want the process to continue and flourish. But the situation leads us to observe a blockage. The government’s attitude is the cause,” he said.

© Agence France-Presse