The call to disband from jailed PKK terrorist group leader Abdullah Öcalan should be responded to immediately, officials say.
Sources from the Defense Ministry, which is at the forefront of counterterrorism efforts, said Thursday that the PKK and all its affiliates should cease acts of terrorism, dissolve themselves and immediately, unconditionally surrender their weapons. “Affiliates” specifically refer to the YPG, the Syrian wing of the terrorist group.
Öcalan made a historic call last month to urge the PKK to lay down arms and dissolve.
The group appears to be accommodating the call, at least partially, as it pledged to stop the attacks targeting Türkiye by declaring a “cease-fire.” The PKK said in a statement that it would heed the call by Öcalan, though there appeared to be a set of conditions. The group’s “executive committee,” quoted by a pro-PKK media outlet, said they declared a cease-fire starting last Saturday “to pave the way for the call for a peaceful and democratic society.”
"We agree with the content of the call as it is and we say that we will follow and implement it," the committee based in northern Iraq said.
"None of our forces will take armed action unless attacked," it added.
The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union, has mounted a campaign of violence since 1984 to carve out autonomy for the Kurdish community. The group saw both support and strict opposition from the Kurds it claimed to fight for. Some joined the PKK, while others sided with Türkiye, even forming “village guard” forces to fight terrorists actively. Since Öcalan was captured in Kenya and jailed in 1999, there have been various attempts to end the PKK terrorism that has claimed more than 40,000 lives over decades. The attempts are now broadly called the “reconciliation process,” which have been carried out both in secrecy and publicly through politicians close to the group and state representatives. The process failed sometime in 2015 after the PKK ended its unilateral “cease-fire” back then while Türkiye, in response, escalated counterterrorism operations.
Counterterrorism operations were also expanded in scope and saw more airstrikes, ground offensives and other military action in Türkiye, Iraq and Syria, three countries with a substantial presence of terrorists.
The new “terror-free Türkiye” initiative was launched last year by government ally Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Risking political support, Bahçeli urged the government to pave the way to allow Öcalan to make a call to his terrorist group to dissolve itself. He also courted representatives of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), to which he has been openly hostile in the past for the latter’s links to the terrorist group.
As part of the People’s Alliance led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Bahçeli ultimately won the support of even staunch opponents of the initiative. The government responded to Bahçeli’s call by allowing meetings of a DEM Party delegation with Öcalan at the island prison where he was held. After several meetings with Öcalan, the DEM Party relayed his appeal, which they branded as the “call of the century,” for the PKK to lay down its weapons and convene a congress to announce the group’s dissolution.
Defense Ministry sources said the call was noteworthy for demonstrating that the group could not achieve anything by resorting to terrorism, that it had outlived its claimed purpose and that it had no option but to dissolve itself, though it was a bit late. “(The PKK) should not refer to words like 'cease-fire,' which was not included in the text (of Öcalan’s call) to confuse the issue. Türkiye will not tolerate attempts to sabotage the process and prolong it and will follow a cautious and reasonable approach,” sources said.
Sources said Türkiye would also follow a sensitive approach on the matter so as not to offend victims of terrorism. Some opposition parties had tried to rally families of terror victims to oppose the initiative, but their efforts failed.
“We will keep valuing mutual respect, tolerance and dialogue instead of hate speech, fights and tension, but if the hand we extended is left hanging or bitten, we have our iron fist ready,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on March 1.
He reiterated Türkiye's determination in the fight against terrorism, both within its borders and beyond.
On Thursday, the Ministry of National Defense announced that 26 terrorists were eliminated in the past week in Iraq and Syria in army operations. The ministry said that since Jan. 1, 478 terrorists were eliminated in operations. The ministry’s spokesperson, Brig. Adm. Zeki Aktürk, said on Thursday that they would continue to fight against terrorism “until the elimination of all terrorists.”
"Türkiye is one of the most powerful and capable countries in the world regarding counterterrorism. If promises made to us are not kept, if efforts are made to stall or deceive us with superficial changes, we will not be responsible for the consequences. Our ongoing operations will continue until the last terrorist is eliminated, even if it means leaving no stone unturned," Erdoğan declared on March 1.
He added that Türkiye remains focused on its own priorities, stating: "We implement policies that change the course of history based on our own agenda, without being trapped by the agendas of others. Every step we take is for the future of Türkiye and its people. Everything we do is to ensure our nation's progress, to break free from the chains that hinder our economic, political and social advancement."
Erdoğan noted that the initiative to eradicate terrorism had been widely accepted by both the public and the political sphere.
"With the exception of some marginal groups, the terror-free Türkiye initiative has been embraced and supported by the majority of the nation and political actors. We see this as a significant achievement for our country. Over the past 22 years, we have made great strides in education, health care, justice, security, transportation, energy, industry and agriculture. Now, we are on the verge of completely eradicating terrorism within our borders. In this new phase, we aim to dismantle terrorist structures beyond our borders as well, ensuring that the 'Century of Türkiye' is an era of democracy, law, prosperity, development and above all, unity," he said.
He vowed that those attempting to weaken Türkiye through external forces would fail, saying: "Those who seek to subjugate Türkiye through chaos and conflict will be disappointed. When we fully realize our vision of a terror-free Türkiye, no one can stand in our way."
The PKK’s Syrian wing, YPG, seeks to distance itself from the terrorist group and its supporters and portrays it as a Kurdish group part of a wider Syrian initiative running a self-styled autonomous region in northeastern Syria. The YPG has welcomed Öcalan’s call but implied that they would not follow it. Meanwhile, the group’s leader, Ferhat Abdi Şahin, turned to Israel for help both against Turkish operations to end their presence and against new rulers of Syria intent on either disarming or reshaping them. Şahin told BBC earlier this week that they would appreciate Israeli support to “prevent attacks against us.”
"Israel is a force with influence in the U.S., the West and the (Middle East) region. We welcome anyone in the world who can help support our rights and protect our achievements,” he said. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said last year that they were in contact with “Kurdish communities in Syria” about the YPG, while he recently called for the protection of the rights of the community. The YPG’s supporters have also called on Israel to aid them for their survival after the fall of the Assad regime last year in Syria, as Syrian opposition forces advanced on the group’s strongholds and Türkiye signaled a cross-border offensive.
