Ankara, Turkey – The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) held a “successful” meeting this week with a view to disarming and disbanding, a Kurdish news agency close to the armed movement said on Friday.
The PKK did not explicitly say it was dissolving but added that it would share “full and detailed information with regard to the outcome of this congress very soon,” it said.
On February 27, Ocalan urged his fighters to disarm and disband, ending a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
In his historic call — in a letter read out by pro-Kurdish delegates at a news conference in Istanbul — Ocalan urged the PKK to hold a congress to formalise the decision.
Days later, the PKK’s leadership accepted Ocalan’s call, declaring a ceasefire.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned there will be harsh consequences “if the promises are not kept” or the militants delay disarming.
‘Historic’ step to peace
The pro-Kurdish Equality and Democracy party (DEM), the third largest party in Turkey’s parliament, hailed the news in a statement on Friday.
“With the PKK’s historic congress decisions, we are one step closer to the horizon of peace after fifty years of conflict,” it said.
“This is a step towards the re-emergence and development of peace and democratic politics that have been longed for, for centuries, in the heart of our ancient lands.”
DEM’s spokesperson Aysegul Dogan had told a news conference before the announcement of the congress: “We are ready to fulfill all our responsibilities with courage, devotion and determination for a Turkey where we can all breathe together, where an equal, fair and permanent peace is achieved and where our vision of a democratic society is realized.”
A DEM delegation held talks with Ocalan in his prison island off Istanbul, as well as with Turkish political parties and contacts in Iraq.
Turkish media reported that the PKK delayed announcement of the congress because DEM delegation member Sirri Sureyya Onder died on Saturday aged 62.
Onder was a veteran politician who won respect across Turkey’s political spectrum for his efforts to end years of Kurdish conflict.
“It is highly probable that PKK already gathered its congress and delayed the announcement because of Onder’s death,” a DEM source told AFP.
“This also fits the calendar previously announced” by nationalist MHP party leader Devlet Bahceli, a strong ally of Erdogan and a key figure in efforts to resume talks, the source added.
Bahceli had proposed the PKK meet in Malazgirt near Lake Van in Turkey’s far east on May 4.
