Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the #Kurdistan Workers’ Party# (PKK) should lay down arms and make its “political wing” act like a “genuine Turkish party,” referring to the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).
“Our stance is crystal clear: If the organization lays down its arms, disbands its cadres, and its political wing begins to act like a genuine Turkish party, then all 85 million of our people will benefit,” Erdogan said in a post on X.
“However, if they ignore this call and continue to serve as proxies for imperialists, as they have for years, the choice is theirs,” he added, referring to Western countries like the United States and France.
He warned that if the PKK fails to heed to Ankara’s demand, Turkey has “the strength, means, and determination to eradicate the separatist organization, as we have with all terrorist structures in the region, down to its last militant.”
His remarks come hours after the DEM Party said its recent meetings with politicians from across the spectrum about Kurdish-Turkish peace talks were generally positive.
After visiting jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan last month, DEM Party has started meditating talks between the state and the PKK, sharing Ocalan’s message of “Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood” with leaders of both ruling and opposition political parties and influential Kurdish politicians with the hope of beginning a peace process and ending decades of conflict.
“The impression we got from the interviews is that there is a common desire and will in all political parties to leave behind the conflicting and tense process stemming from the Kurdish issue,” read a statement from the party on Friday.
Turkish officials claim that the DEM Party is the political wing of the PKK, but the party has denied any ties with the armed group.
On Tuesday, Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli, who is the mastermind of the latest peace talks, said that the PKK must be dissolved “without any conditions.”
Founded in 1978, the PKK initially called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan but now calls for autonomy. The group is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey.
Omer Ocalan, a DEM Party lawmaker and the PKK leader's nephew, replied to Erdogan's post on X.
Mr. President, there is no position you haven't held in this country. You have been elected many times. Your party has won elections. You have been in power for years, he said.
However, the Kurdish issue, which has been going on for a century or even longer, has been tried to be solved with methods of rejection, denial and assimilation. These methods were not a solution. This method caused all parties to lose, he added.
This country must solve this problem with an honorable peace. This is the greatest favor your government can do to this society, he said.[1]