Analysis
The Turkish government raises the stakes after Ocalan’s message
Although Ocalan's message was as clear as it could be, Celik upped the ante further: “All elements of the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria should lay down arms and dissolve themselves. The expression 'terrorist group' also covers the YPG in Syria.”
“The efforts for a terror-free Turkey ... have entered a new phase as of yesterday,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, after waiting a day to comment on the historic announcement in which Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan called on all PKK-linked groups to abandon the armed struggle and for the PKK to “dissolve itself.” In his statement, Erdogan refrained from naming anyone except his government partner Devlet Bahceli, head of the ultranationalist MHP party. Last October, Bahceli was the one who unexpectedly extended a hand to the Kurds of the Dem Party, who were thus able to visit the island-prison of Imrali three times, where “Apo” has been jailed since 1999.
Erdogan stressed that the prospect of a “terror-free” country was a “historic opportunity” and would represent a victory for all of Turkey’s 85 million inhabitants, regardless of whether they are Turks, Kurds, Alevis or Sunnis. He warned anyone against “blocking this process by ambivalent speeches or actions,” and vowed that the Turkish authorities would “take all measures against provocations aimed at driving the process into a deadlock.” Going beyond the statements, however, there is a lack of concrete elements on what the next steps would look like.
Furthermore, the signals being sent are mixed. On Friday, Omer Celik, spokesman for the president’s AKP party, denied that the state could negotiate with what he called “terrorists”: “The state has a tough and soft approach in counterterrorism. The soft approach is the call to the terrorist groups to lay down arms and the tough approach is what the Turkish Armed Forces is doing now” (the latter killed 12 people in northeastern Syria on Wednesday).
Although Ocalan's message was as clear as it could be, Celik upped the ante further: “All elements of the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria should lay down arms and dissolve themselves. The expression 'terrorist group' also covers the YPG in Syria.” This was in response to Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, who on Thursday welcomed Ocalan's call but also specified that the call to lay down arms concerned the PKK alone and not the SDF. The self-defense army in the autonomous region has brought together units from various minorities, including the Kurdish YPG, and is mostly made up of Arabs, but Ankara still views it as an offshoot of Ocalan's party.
What has happened in Syria over the past 13 years, with the confederal revolution that began in 2012, the resistance in Kobane in 2014, and the extension of the radical democracy model throughout the country’s Northeast through the fight against ISIS represents the great novelty that this new attempt to resolve the Kurdish question politically must deal with. For the Turks, this is a problem; for the Kurds, this is a heritage that cannot be sacrificed. It is clear that Turkey’s call for the disarmament of the YPG is self-interested, as Turkish drones are currently conducting strikes on them from above while pro-Ankara Islamists attack them from the west.
Also on Friday, an important statement came from the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), a kind of Kurdish parliament-in-exile that brings together different parties and organizations. “We understand the crucial importance of Mr. Öcalan’s historic call, and voice our full support for it. We will work to seize this opportunity, and to use all our resources for a peaceful and democratic solution,” they wrote. They also warned, however, that if it is not resolved, the Kurdish issue may undermine stability in the area.
The KNK reiterated that it is now up to the Turkish state authorities to stop the war, “create conditions for Mr. Ocalan to work freely” – without any further specification of what they mean – and involve the Turkish Parliament in the peace process. The same demands also came from the opposition forces. Chief among them is the Kemalist CHP party, whose chairman Ozgur Ozel reiterated that “the Kurdish issue should be addressed and resolved transparently, under the roof of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, by encompassing all segments of society.”
At the international level, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei called Ocalan's call for disarmament “crucial,” arguing that it could have positive consequences not only for Turkey but also for the broader region. On the European side, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, part of the outgoing government, stressed the importance of permanently guaranteeing cultural and political rights for the Kurds, saying that Germany was willing to do “everything possible.” All these positions were deemed “good but … not enough” by the KNK, which called on the international community to act more forcefully: “words alone are not enough, all relevant actors must seize this opportunity and play their role for peace and dialogue.”
As of Friday night, no official statements had come from the PKK leaders living in the Qandil mountains on the Iraq-Iran border. It also remains to be seen how the millions of Kurds will react to a transition that is inevitably historic in its scope: “People are feeling both hope and despair,” wrote independent Turkish news outlet Bianet on Thursday, present in the square in Amed (Diyarbakir) where Ocalan’s message was broadcast on a giant screen. It is a mixture of contradictory feelings and bewilderment that many Kurds in the diaspora are also feeling right now as they wait for the next steps to become clear.
UPDATE AS OF SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 9:30 A.M. CET
This morning at 6 a.m., the PKK executive committee responded positively to Ocalan's call: “We agree with the content of the call as it is, and we say that we will follow and implement it.” The party has declared a unilateral ceasefire. However, in order to proceed with disarmament and dissolution, it calls for the Kurdish leader's release so that he can personally lead the party’s congress. The full statement in English can be read here.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/il-governo-turco-alza-la-posta-dopo-il-messaggio-di-ocalan on 2025-03-01