Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), appeared in a rare online video on Wednesday to declare the group’s armed struggle against T\u00fcrkiye over and called for a full transition to democratic politics.<\/p>\n
In the recording, dated June and released by Firat News Agency, which is close to the PKK, Ocalan urged T\u00fcrkiye’s parliament to set up a commission to oversee disarmament and manage a broader peace process.<\/p>\n
“The phase of armed struggle has ended. This is not a loss, but a historic gain,” he said. “The armed struggle stage must now be voluntarily replaced by a phase of democratic politics and law.”<\/p>\n
The PKK, which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state for four decades and is designated a terrorist organization by T\u00fcrkiye, the United States and the European Union, decided in May to disband after an initial written appeal from Ocalan in February.<\/p>\n
Since the PKK launched its insurgency in 1984 \u2013 originally with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state \u2013 the conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, imposed a heavy economic burden and fueled deep social and political divisions.<\/p>\n
The video marks a rare and potentially pivotal moment in the long-running conflict, offering what could be President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s most significant opportunity yet to seal a political settlement to the Kurdish issue, should his government choose to respond, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n
It also comes before PKK militants begin handing over their weapons in groups in northern Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah on Friday, in a major step in the process.<\/p>\n
Seated in a beige polo shirt with a glass of water on the table in front of him, Ocalan appeared to read from a transcript in the seven-minute video \u2013 the first public footage or audio of him since his arrest in 1999. Six other jailed PKK members sat beside him, all looking directly at the camera.<\/p>\n
He said the PKK, which has been based in northern Iraq’s mountainous regions in recent years, had ended its separatist agenda.<\/p>\n
“The main objective has been achieved \u2013 existence has been acknowledged. What remains would be excessive repetition and a dead end,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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