(Bloomberg) — The leader of separatist Kurdish group PKK said he’s ready to cooperate with the Turkish government in a bid to end a long-running conflict that has claimed thousands of lives, according to a statement by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, on Sunday.
“Re-strengthening the Turkish-Kurdish fellowship has not only become a historical responsibility, but also of fateful importance and urgency for all peoples,” Abdullah Ocalan was cited as saying in the statement. “I am ready to take the necessary positive step and make the necessary call,” he said when a party delegation met him on Saturday at Imrali Island, where he’s been incarcerated since his capture in 1999.
“I have the competence and determination to contribute positively to the new paradigm that Mr. Bahceli and Mr. Erdogan are empowering,” Ocalan said in the statement, referring to the leader of the ultra-nationalist MHP party Devlet Bahceli and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In October, Bahceli had called for Ocalan’s solitary confinement to be lifted and for him to be allowed to speak in parliament and urge the PKK to lay down arms. Erdogan supported his ally’s call.
Bahceli’s remarks were seen as an unexpected shift, given his party’s historically hardline stance against the Kurdish movement. One day after Bahceli’s call, PKK attacked Turkish state defense firm Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc., killing five people. PKK said at the time that the attack had been planned “a long time ago” and wasn’t connected to the recent “political agenda.”
Although Ocalan no longer directs the PKK’s day-to-day operations, he is still revered by the movement’s commanders on the ground. At the same time, any peace deal negotiated by him would mean little if the PKK refused to sign up to it.
The Kurdish-backed militant group, which is waging a war for autonomy in Turkey’s southeast since 1984, is designated a terrorist organization by the US, Turkey and the European Union.
Turkey regards the armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party of Syria, the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, as an affiliate of PKK.
YPG, which seeks autonomy for Syria’s Kurds, has shown a willingness to work with any power capable of advancing that goal. Syrian Kurds control a zone in Syria’s northeast.
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