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Far-right leader expects Öcalan to announce PKK’s dissolution after second prison visit

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Devlet Bahçeli, the chairman of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has said he expects an announcement from Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), about the unconditional dissolution of the PKK following a planned second visit by a delegation of Kurdish politicians to him in prison, Turkish media reported.

A pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) delegation comprising Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Van MP Pervin Buldan and veteran Kurdish politician Ahmet Türk paid a historic visit to Öcalan in a prison on the Sea of Marmara on December 28. During that meeting Öcalan expressed readiness to contribute to a “new paradigm” for resolving the Kurdish conflict.

“Following the second meeting between the DEM Party delegation and İmralı [a reference to Öcalan], the end of the existence of the PKK should be announced without any preconditions. This is our absolute and uncompromising expectation. PKK terrorists must either bury their weapons, surrender or face their inevitable end,” Bahçeli said at a meeting of his party on Tuesday.

The DEM Party delegation is expected to pay a second visit to Öcalan. The details of their meeting have not yet been clarified.

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. It is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.

Threat of a military operation

In his speech Bahçeli also called on the PKK and other Kurdish militant groups to withdraw their forces from northeast Syria, a demand voiced by Turkey more frequently following the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last month, while hinting at a military operation in the region.

“The area east of the Euphrates must either be freed from terrorism or saved from terrorism. There’s no negotiation with terrorism, only fighting…” Bahçeli said.

Turkey sees the US-allied Kurdish militant groups in Syria, such as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) as an extension of the PKK.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also raised the possibility of a military operation against Kurdish groups in Syria last week, saying that the eradication of the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria was “imminent” and that Ankara would not accept any policy that allowed the YPG to maintain a foothold in the country. He also warned about a military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria unless they accepted Ankara’s conditions for a “bloodless” transition.

Since 2016 Turkey has carried out successive ground operations in Syria to push Kurdish forces away from its border. It has faced accusations of hitting civilian and military targets and infrastructure and causing casualties during its operations in northeast Syria.

Bahçeli, who is hostile to the PKK and pro-Kurdish parties, shocked many when he made a call for Öcalan to come to parliament to renounce terrorism and to disband the militant group.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan backed the unprecedented appeal as a “historic window of opportunity.”

Following their first 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.

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