Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party demands a line to PKK leader Ocalan before new talks

Two leading members of the Turkish parliament from the country’s pro-Kurdish party said on Monday any resolution to the Kurdish question must begin with ending the isolation of imprisoned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan. 

Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit, a deputy whip of the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party (Dem), told journalists that the family and lawyers of Ocalan had not been able to talk to him nor visit him for more than 44 months. 

Ocalan has been kept on a remote island in the Marmara Sea since 1999. Ostensibly a left-wing militant group, the PKK has fought a guerrilla war against the Turkish state since 1984, with its main demand being greater autonomy for the country’s Kurdish population.

Sezai Temelli, another Dem deputy chair, said Ocalan is the ultimate interlocutor for a new process between the state and the PKK. 

“Imrali is the interlocutor, if a process is going to start, Imrali is there,” Temelli said, referring to the prison where Ocalan is detained. “The second interlocutor is the Grand National Assembly; we are also a party of the Parliament. We are acting on this line and this responsibility.”

Failed peace process

Turkey previously launched a “peace process” with the PKK in 2012, which failed to end the conflict largely due to ramifications of the Syrian civil war, where PKK offshoots seized large chunks of territory and put themselves in an advantageous position with US backing against the Islamic State group. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government conducted a major crackdown on the PKK and pro-Kurdish parties since 2015 when an unofficial ceasefire collapsed after the PKK killed some members of the security forces in southern Turkey.

The government arrested thousands of members of the pro-Kurdish parties and unseated 41 pro-Kurdish mayors before the March 2024 local elections, when Dem reclaimed all of them. 

However, a recent move by Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), triggered a series of rumours in the capital that Ankara was considering to begin resolving the so-called Kurdish question with a fresh start. 

Bahceli, in the opening ceremony of the parliament earlier this month, walked towards Dem members and shook hands with them and held a brief chat. 

Following the development, Bahceli on two separate occasions said that his move was deliberate and was aiming to search for peace in Turkey while the region was in flames due to the Gaza war and Israeli military offensive in Lebanon. 

“The hand I am extending is the wish and offer of those who are united in our thousand-year-old brotherhood, come and be the party of Turkey, come and stand against terrorism,” he said last week.

“We do not extend our hand haphazardly, out of pleasure, out of boredom, out of momentary impulses, out of the rudder and order.”

Erdogan also in a separate statement over the weekend backed Bahceli, saying that his government was always ready to resolve issues without resorting to terror. 

New constitution

Ankara in recent years has pushed the PKK from Turkey to northern Iraq, with the increasing use of sophisticated technology including drones and signal intelligence. 

However the group and its offshoots still hold territory in northern Iraq and Syria. 

PKK leader Murat Karayilan on Sunday told a radio station that the group doesn’t really value the outreach by Bahceli to Dem. 

“Some people even say, ‘I wonder if a new process will begin?’ There is no such thing. No one should have such dreams,” he said “ They are still killing Kurds every day. There is war, there is isolation on Leader Apo [Ocalan].”

The government also aims to ratify a new constitution which might grant Erdogan another term, since he is not able to run as president in another election under the current constitution unless parliament calls for a snap election. 

Dem officials said they were open to holding talks on a new constitution but they declined to say whether they would block a possible further term for Erdogan, only indirectly saying that they wouldn’t support strengthening the current authoritarian rule in the country.