IRBIL, Iraq — A peace initiative to end decades of conflict Kurdish militants A top militant commander said Thursday that the Turkish government had effectively “submitted” it.
He and other officials in the group accused Ankara of failing to implement the legal and political reforms needed to move the process forward, contradicting recent optimistic statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Murat Karaylan, co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and one of its most senior leaders, said in an interview with the PKK-affiliated ANF news outlet that his group has taken major steps as part of the peace effort. Including the declaration of an armistice and an end to its armed conflict.
“The process is currently on hold. This is what we have been able to see and what we have been informed about,” the outlet quoted Karayilan as saying. “We, as a movement, have fulfilled our responsibilities at this stage. It is clear that we have done everything necessary for the government to take action.”
There was no immediate reaction from Turkish officials to Karayilan’s comments.
Last year, the PKK announced it would disarm and disband as part of a new peace effort with Türkiye, following calls from its imprisoned leader. Abdullah Ocalan. The PKK then held a symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq, and later announced it was withdrawing fighters from some key positions in Turkey into Iraq.
Earlier this year, a Turkish parliamentary committee A series of reforms were recommended to advance the initiative, including the reintegration of PKK members who have renounced violence, while stressing that legal steps should be linked to state security institutions that verify that the group has surrendered its weapons.
Karayılan said Turkish government and ruling party officials had set April as the month in which legislation spearheading the process would be brought to parliament, a deadline that has now passed without any legislation being passed.
He accused the Turkish government of failing to implement even the basics Measures recommended by the committee, Which also includes releasing opposition politicians and workers from jail.
Ocalan himself is also imprisoned. Karayılan said the PKK’s decision to end the armed conflict and disband itself at the 12th Congress was approved on the condition that Ocalan would personally manage the disarmament process, meaning the group’s own internal mandate cannot proceed until its leader is in prison.
In a separate statement to The Associated Press, Zagros Hiwa, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Communities Union, a political organization affiliated with the PKK, said the organization has taken several steps in line with Ocalan’s call. But Haiwa said Turkish forces continued to operate in parts of northern Iraq, government-appointed administrators still held the seats of elected Kurdish mayors in Turkey and thousands of Kurdish and Turkish political prisoners were jailed.
“The Turkish state has not taken any legal and political steps towards peace and continues its wartime policies under new rhetoric,” he said.
Haiwa accused the Turkish government of “vitalizing” the process to strengthen the ruling party’s hold on power and boost its position in upcoming elections, rather than seeking real solutions.
“What happens next depends entirely on the attitude of the Turkish state,” Haiwa said. He warned that the standoff could have “uncertain effects.”
The suggestion by PKK officials that the peace process has stalled contradicts a statement by Erdogan, who a day earlier told lawmakers from his ruling party that peace efforts were proceeding in a positive environment.
“The process is progressing as it should,” Erdogan said. “Those who write pessimistic scenarios about the process are acting entirely on their own illusions, not on facts.
The PKK has waged an armed insurgency since 1984, which has killed thousands and spread into neighboring Iraq and Syria. It has been designated a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, and the European Union.
The group initially sought an independent Kurdish state, but later came to demand autonomy and expanded rights in Turkey.
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Suzanne Fraser contributed to this report from Ankara, Türkiye.
