Analysis
PKK’s Ocalan reappears on video: Lay down your arms without delay
In the seven-minute video, Öcalan reaffirms his endorsement of the February 27 ‘Appeal for Peace and Democratic Society.’ Thus, he makes another explicit call to lay down arms.
“Dear Comrades. Ethically, I feel duty-bound to provide … explanatory and creative responses for the problems, solutions, the achieved levels, and the concrete situation of our Communalist Camaraderie Movement.” With that opening sentence Abdullah Öcalan re-emerged on video for the first time since 1999, a signal arriving at a crucial moment for the peace process between the Kurdish movement and the Turkish state.
The seven-minute clip, released Wednesday by the Firat News Agency, shows the historic PKK leader seated in Imrali prison and flanked by six fellow detainees: Hamili Yıldırım, Ömer Hayrı Konar and Veysi Aktaş – longtime companions in isolation – and three newcomers, intellectuals Ergin Atabey, Zeki Bayhan and Mahmut Yamalak, all jailed for decades for being members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
According to sources within the Kurdish movement, Ankara allowed the trio’s transfer to Imrali as part of behind-the-scenes negotiations. The three are reportedly helping Öcalan draft a “Manifesto for a Democratic Society,” announced in the video as the future replacement for The Road of the Kurdistan Revolution, the movement’s guiding text for more than half a century.
The recording bears the date of June 19, but has only been published now. While public talks appeared to have stagnated, the representatives of the Dem party, which serves as mediator, has been busy: on June 18 its delegation visited Öcalan for the fifth time, and Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahçeli proposed a 100-member parliamentary commission to manage the negotiations.
After years of near-total isolation, Imrali has become unexpectedly busy: prisoners have received family visits twice in recent weeks, and on Sunday met with the Dem team again; on Monday, the same envoys held their second direct meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since this phase of dialogue began.
In the seven-minute video, Öcalan reaffirms his endorsement of the February 27 “Appeal for Peace and Democratic Society,” hailing the PKK’s 12th Congress as “a comprehensive positive response.”
Thus, he makes another explicit call to lay down arms and to set up a “fully operational” parliamentary commission within the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. He says this must happen “without further delay.” “While being wary of descending into illogical ‘you first, then me’ approaches, the necessary step should inexorably be taken.”
“You must responsibly accept the commitment to guarantee the laying down of arms before the witness of the public,” the Kurdish leader continues. “This step will not only carry weight before parliament, it will also reassure public opinion and honor the promises made.” The remark is a clear nod to the ceremony announced in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, where a first group of guerrillas is expected to symbolically surrender their weapons under the supervision of international observers.
Öcalan did not ignore the thorniest issue: his own freedom repeatedly cited by the PKK as a non-negotiable condition for ending the armed struggle. “I have never regarded my freedom as a personal issue. Philosophically, the freedom of the individual cannot be abstracted from the freedom of society.”
His speech ended with both caution and hope: “The latest developments in the region have clearly proved the importance and urgency of this historical step … I strongly and firmly believe these discussions will guide us toward a new theoretical program and a new strategic and tactical phase at the national, regional and global level.”
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/ocalan-riappare-in-video-disarmo-senza-indugi on 2025-07-10