Physical Address

304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124

Kurdish group PKK says that the poor records and dissolves


Forbidden Kurdish group The PKK, which has led a 40-year uprising against Turkey, has announced that it lays and dissolves its arms.

The move followed a call in February by the prison leader of the group, Abdullah Ocalan, for the organization to dissolve. The group is forbidden as a terrorist group in Turkey, the EU, the UK and the US.

The PKK uprising was initially aimed at creating an independent home country for Kurds, which are good for around 20% of the Turkish population. But since then it has left his separatist goals, instead aimed at more autonomy and larger Kurdish rights.

More than 40,000 people were killed during the conflict.

In February, Ocalan, 76, called on his movement to put down his arms and resolve himself. Since 1999, the PKK leader has been in lonely imprisonment in prison on an island in the sea of ​​Marmara, southwest of Istanbul.

Ocalan wrote a letter from prison in February and said: “There is no alternative to democracy in the pursuit and realization of a political system. Democratic consensus is the fundamental way.”

It is unclear what Ocalan and his supporters will get in exchange for dissolution, but there is speculation that he can become conditional.

Kurdish politicians will hope for a new political dialogue and a road to larger Kurdish rights.

Both parties now had reasons to close a deal.

The PKK has been hit hard in recent years by the Turkish army and regional changes have made it harder for them and their affiliated companies to operate in Iraq and Syria.

President Erdogan needs the support of Pro Kurdish political parties if he can run again in the next presidential elections of Turkey, in 2028.

The decision to dissolve was an important step in the direction of a “terror-free turkey”, and the process would be followed by state institutions, said a spokesperson for the AK party of President Tayyip Erdogan, according to Reuters’s news agency.

Winthrop Rodgers, from the think tank Chatham House of the International Affairs, said that it would be “a large democratic transition through Turkey” to meet the requirements of Kurdish political parties.

In recent months there has been “some goodwill” of some Turkish leaders, Rodgers said, which could make the PKK discontinue.

He added: “But whether that extends to the major changes that are needed to ensure full Kurdish participation in politics and society is much less clear.

“In many ways the ball is at the court of Turkey.”



Source link