The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party’s (PKK) 30-year conflict with Turkey is coming to an end, the group’s jailed leader said on Saturday, hailing the start of a new democratic process in the country.
The PKK, which for three decades fought a bloody insurgency for self-rule for Turkey’s Kurdish minority that cost 40,000 lives, launched its armed struggle on Aug. 15, 1984.
However, the group’s jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, said in a statement from his cell on the prison island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara that Turkey was now on the verge of “historic developments” after last week’s presidential elections.
“On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of our struggle, I want to state that we are on the verge of historic developments,” Ocalan said in a statement quoted by the Firat news agency, which is close to the PKK. “This 30-year war is — through a major democratic negotiation — at the stage of coming to an end.”
“The process of democratic negotiations has a profound meaning, historically and socially,” he added.
He said that the process could become a model for solving conflicts not only in Turkey, “but in the entire region.”
Ocalan’s statement follows a meeting on Friday on Imrali between him and representatives of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
The presidential election was won by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but the HDP’s candidate Selahattin Demirtas polled a respectable 9.8 percent in what Ocalan said was a breakthrough for Turkish democracy.
He said that the HDP was capable of becoming the main opposition to Erdogan, and even one day replacing his ruling AK party in government.
“With these results, the HDP, with its broadest base, will be today’s democratic opposition and the future’s democratic ruling party,” Ocalan said.
The election had opened the way to clear “extreme nationalist and fascist policies” from Turkey, he said.
Ocalan said that the new period of transition was about “moving the idea of a democratic Turkey from a utopia to a reality.”
During the presidential election campaign, Demirtas tried to expand the appeal of the HDP to encompass not just Kurds, but secular Turks attracted by its socialist, pro-women and pro-gay message.
Erdogan has also sought to ease tensions with the Kurdish minority by implementing reforms, notably on the use of the Kurdish language.
His government launched clandestine peace talks with Ocalan in 2012, but the talks stalled in September last year when the rebels accused the government of failing to deliver on reform.
Parliament last month adopted a new reform bill aimed at kick-starting the talks, which was hailed by Ocalan.
The moves come as PKK rebels and other Kurdish fighters play a lead role in combating the advance of Islamic State (IS) militants, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, in northern Iraq.
In his message from prison, Ocalan hailed the fighters from the PKK, Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga and other Kurdish fighting units who have joined forces against the IS, saying they were “resisting for the sake of our freedom.”
The PKK is still classified as a terrorist group not just by Turkey, but also the US and the EU, complicating its role in the US-backed Kurdish actions against the IS.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of