Jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan has accused Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of trying to create the illusion it has defeated the PKK, while stressing that Kurds still have political alternatives, the Mezopotamya news agency reported.
The remarks were conveyed by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) during a news conference in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Tuesday. The press briefing was attended by DEM Party Deputy Co-chair Tayip Temel, Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK) Co-Spokesperson Meral Danış Beştaş and Diyarbakır lawmaker Cengiz Çandar.
Party officials relayed messages from Öcalan conveyed during their latest meeting with him, part of peace efforts between the Turkish government and the PKK aimed at ending a decades-long conflict that has killed about 40,000 people since the group launched its insurgency in 1984.
In July 30 PKK militants burned their weapons in northern Iraq, a symbolic first step after Öcalan earlier this year urged the group to lay down its arms and disband. The PKK announced in May it would comply, saying it has “completed [its] historic mission.”
There are now expectations that the Turkish government will reciprocate the PKK’s move with legal steps that will include protections for militants who lay down their arms and the meeting of demands from the country’s Kurds to expand their political and cultural rights.
The lack of concrete steps so far has...
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