The Turkish President warned against any provocations.
The challenge of the founder of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) Abudlluha Öcaalan to dissolve this organization is a historical opportunity, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday. TASR reports according to AFP.
“We have a historical opportunity to move towards the destination to destroy the terror wall,” Erdogan responded. Turkey will be closely monitored for further development to make sure that the conversations on the end of the uprising will be tightened to a successful end.
The Turkish president also warned against any provocations. “No member of this state, whether Turd or Kurd, will forgive anyone blocking this process with ambivalent manifestations or actions, as it happened in the past,” he added.
A spokesman for Erdogan’s ruling justice and development party (AKP) Ömer Celik also previously also stated that Öcalan’s Thursday call is in line with the government’s ambition to create “Turkey without terror”.
The management of PKK, which is based in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, has not yet responded to the call of its imprisoned founder. The leader of the Kurdish militias of Syrian democratic forces (SDF) Maice Abdi has already pointed out that Öcalan’s challenge is not concerned with his organization. The SDF is dominated by large areas in the east of Syria and their main component consists of sections of folk self -defense (YPG), which the government in Ankara considers to be an offshoot of PKK.
Öcalan’s fundamental challenge is part of the current peace process between the PKK and the Turkish government, which was initiated by Devlet Bahčeli, the coalition partner of President Erdogan in October. Bahčeli suggested that Öcalan be conditionally released in exchange for dissolution of the PKK and the end of its armed activities.
PKK, founded by Öcalan in 1978, leads the uprising in the southeast of Turkey since 1984. Ankara and its Western allies consider this group a terrorist organization. Previous efforts to close peace between PKK and the Turkish government have ended in failure. More than 40,000 people have lost their lives, AFP writes.
