 leader Abdullah Öcalan appealed to Nechirvan Barzani, the president of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, to help advance talks with Ankara to end a four-decade-long conflict between the Kurdish militants and Turkey, Al-Monitor reported, citing excerpts of a letter it said was shared with the outlet.){kind=link}
Jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan appealed to Nechirvan Barzani, the president of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, to help advance talks with Ankara to end a four-decade-long conflict between the Kurdish militants and Turkey, Al-Monitor reported, citing excerpts of a letter it said was shared with the outlet.
In the letter delivered last week, Öcalan told Barzani the outcome would affect Iraq and the Kurdistan region and urged him to take a leadership role, Al-Monitor wrote.
The appeal came amid uncertainty over the future of talks that began last year and coincided with Barzani’s meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara on October 7. A senior Iraqi Kurdish official told Al-Monitor that Barzani pressed Erdoğan to finalize a legal framework that would allow eligible PKK members in Iraqi Kurdistan to return to Turkey. Publicly, Barzani criticized the PKK a day later in Erbil for not following Öcalan’s orders, a remark that drew a sharp rebuttal from the group, according to the Al-Monitor report.
Talks in Turkey have moved in phases. Öcalan in February called for the laying down of arms and dissolution of the PKK. The group declared a ceasefire in March and announced an end to its armed campaign in May. On July 11 a symbolic ceremony to mark giving up weapons took place in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
Analysts link Ankara’s peace talks to developments in Syria. US envoy Tom Barrack brought Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander Mazlum Kobane and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa together in Damascus on October 7 to revive a March 10 framework to integrate the Kurdish-led northeast into Syrian state structures. After clashes in Aleppo, the sides agreed to a ceasefire.
Al-Monitor quoted Kobane as telling Agence France-Presse that a preliminary deal exists on mechanisms to fold SDF units and internal security forces into Syria’s defense and interior ministries, while disagreements persist over governance and decentralization.
Erdoğan seeks Kurdish support for constitutional amendments that could open a path for another presidential run, while Kurdish parties want constitutional protections for cultural and political rights, legal steps for the release of prisoners of conscience and progress on Öcalan’s status. The case of Selahattin Demirtaş, the jailed former leader of Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party then operating under a different name, remains a key test.
Rhetoric heats up in parliament
Nationalist opposition İYİ (Good) Party leader Müsavat Dervişoğlu told his parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday that the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) acts as the political arm of the PKK “terrorist group” and used harsh language about Öcalan. DEM Party spokesperson Ayşegül Doğa replied on social media that those who profit from war fear peace and called the accusations baseless.
During yesterday’s parliamentary session, İYİ Party group deputy chair Turhan Çömez accused parliament’s Deputy Speaker Pervin Buldan of acting as a messenger for Öcalan after her recent public remarks about the jailed PKK leader’s views on the negative press over the peace efforts. Buldan denied the charge from the rostrum, saying her efforts aim at peace and that she would not accept insults. A heated exchange followed, and the meeting was briefly recessed.
Session records and subsequent reporting show that Buldan’s televised summary of Öcalan’s concerns focused on media rhetoric and did not include calls to silence dissent or threaten opponents. The chamber later resumed amid continued heckling from both sides.