{"id":248003,"date":"2025-02-27T14:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T14:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/27\/ocalan-says-pkk-fighters-should-disarm\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T14:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T14:48:09","slug":"ocalan-says-pkk-fighters-should-disarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/27\/ocalan-says-pkk-fighters-should-disarm\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocalan Says PKK Fighters Should Disarm"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/27\/multimedia\/27Turkey-Kurds-jtql\/27Turkey-Kurds-jtql-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Ocalan Says PKK Fighters Should Disarm\" title=\"Ocalan Says PKK Fighters Should Disarm\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The imprisoned leader of a Kurdish guerrilla movement that has been waging a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state for decades called on Thursday for his fighters to lay down their arms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party, or P.K.K., is classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and other countries. The group\u2019s leader, Abdullah Ocalan, made his appeal in a written statement that was read aloud during a news conference by members of Turkey\u2019s main pro-Kurdish political party who had just visited him in prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Ocalan called for the P.K.K. to lay down its weapons, saying in the statement that the group has completed its life-span and should disband.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The rare message from Mr. Ocalan raised the possibility that a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people over four decades could finally end. It could also echo across borders, given Mr. Ocalan\u2019s profound influence over members of the group in Turkey and Iraq as well as affiliated Kurdish militias in Syria and Iran.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But there was little indication of what would happen next. There has been scant public discussion of who would monitor compliance with Mr. Ocalan\u2019s call, what would happen to fighters who comply with it or what \u2014 if anything \u2014 the government has offered in exchange for the disarmament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Ocalan\u2019s appeal came after a series of talks that included Turkish officials; Mr. Ocalan himself; and members of Turkey\u2019s main pro-Kurdish party, the People\u2019s Equality and Democracy Party, or D.E.M. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a speech to members of his political party in January, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said the government had offered Mr. Ocalan\u2019s group no concessions but that ending the conflict would benefit Turks and Kurds alike.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The goal of the talks was to get \u201cthe terror group to disband itself, to surrender its arms unconditionally,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But in an interview published last week by the P.K.K.-linked Firat News Agency, a senior member of the group suggested that many issues remained unresolved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cNo one should think that there will be an easy negotiation at the table, signatures will be made and everything will be solved,\u201d said the senior member, Duran Kalkan. \u201cThe other side wants to eliminate the P.K.K.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The group has been battling the Turkish state since the early 1980s, attacking police stations and military posts and carrying out bombings that have killed many civilians. It began as a secessionist group that sought to create an independent state for Turkey\u2019s Kurdish minority but now says it seeks greater rights for Kurds inside Turkey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For many Turks, Mr. Ocalan is the country\u2019s most despised terrorist. Turkish officials and news outlets often refer to him as \u201cbaby killer\u201d or \u201cchief terrorist.\u201d Convicted in 1999 of leading an armed terrorist group, Mr. Ocalan has been in prison for a quarter-century. Photos of him since have been rare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Turkey and the P.K.K. have tried over the years to resolve the conflict, most recently through peace talks that started in 2011. But negotiations broke down in 2015, ushering in a deadly new phase.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last October, a powerful political ally of Mr. Erdogan made <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/10\/24\/world\/middleeast\/turkey-terrorist-attack-kurdish-peace-talks.html\" title=\"\">a surprising public call<\/a> to Mr. Ocalan, requesting that he tell his fighters to lay down their arms and end the conflict. That led to limited visits from relatives and political allies of Mr. Ocalan to explore the possibility of a new peace process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/27\/world\/middleeast\/turkey-pkk-abdullah-ocalan.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The imprisoned leader of a Kurdish guerrilla movement that has been waging a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state for decades called on Thursday for his fighters to lay down their arms. The Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party, or P.K.K., is classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and other countries. The group\u2019s leader, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/27\/multimedia\/27Turkey-Kurds-jtql\/27Turkey-Kurds-jtql-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[42196,32088,18406,192259,178763,192260,150845,164212,19366,15556],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248003"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248005,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248003\/revisions\/248005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}