ShareARBIL: Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is working on a “democratic” settlement to the four-decade conflict between Turkey and Kurdish militants, a pro-Kurdish party delegation member said Monday after wrapping up talks in Arbil. A delegation from the main pro-Kurdish DEM party visited Ocalan twice over the past weeks, and then held talks with Turkey’s main parliamentary factions before travelling to Iraq last weekend.
The delegation in Iraq, which included two DEM lawmakers as well as Keskin Bayindir from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) with two seats in the Turkish parliament, met with Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in Arbil. “Mr. Ocalan is working hard to find a process that could lead to a solution despite all the difficult conditions,” Bayindir told reporters after the meeting.
“He is working to remove this issue from the field of war and conflict and to establish a democratic and legal process” to resolve the conflict, he added. “This roadmap will also stop the crises in the Middle East,” Bayindir said.
Although no timing has been set for presenting Ocalan’s plan, Kurdish politicians are confident it will be soon, and no later than Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, in March. Barzani said he “hopes the PKK adopts a strategic vision towards the process,” adding that today’s opportunity “must not be missed.”
“Experience has proven that war and weapons do not solve any problem,” Barzani said in a statement following the meeting. He added he is prepared to offer “full assistance and support” to ensure the success of the peace process, which he described as “an important and historic opportunity.”
The pro-Kurdish Turkish lawmakers conveyed a message Sunday from Ocalan to Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, a crucial powerbroker in Kurdish affairs. Their delegation will also hold talks in the city Sulaymaniyah Tuesday with Kurdish officials including the autonomous region’s deputy prime minister Qubad Talabani.
Families worried
A mother weeping for a teenaged daughter shot dead by a Turkish sniper and a father mourning a son killed by PKK militants are among countless families hoping that a new peace drive can end Turkey’s four-decade-old Kurdish conflict.
Both live in the Kurdish-majority southeast, where tens of thousands of lives have been lost in violence between the Turkish state and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The new peace efforts are backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, and families on both sides of the divide want it to succeed. At her home in the city of Diyarbakir, Fahriye Cukur, 63, cannot take her eyes off a picture on the wall of her daughter Rozerin in school uniform. She was killed during clashes between militants and security forces in January 2016.
The collapse of a truce in 2015 sparked a new round of the conflict when many government curfews were imposed, including in the city’s Sur district. Cukur said her daughter — who was passionate about photography — had gone to Sur during a break in a curfew to collect exam papers from friends. But the authorities suddenly reduced the break from five hours to three and the fighting reignited.
“People were stuck there, including my daughter. She took refuge at the home of an elderly couple, but when she tried to leave, she was shot by a sniper,” her mother told AFP.
The family found out about the death through a news bulletin. It took five months, several protests and a hunger strike for the grieving parents to get her body back. Cukur said the authorities had mixed up their teenage daughter with a female PKK fighter, codenamed Roza, who had been hiding in the same district. They claimed she had been trained in the mountains, but her mother told AFP: “My daughter was never engaged in political activism.
“She loved school, she wanted to become a psychiatrist and help her people,” she added, indicating the “TC” insignia — meaning “republic of Turkey” — on her school uniform. The PKK’s jailed founder Abdullah Ocalan is widely expected to urge followers to lay down their arms in the coming weeks.
Many families hope this will end the conflict and spare other families from the pain they live with.
“We can’t forget what happened but we have to hope. I have two more kids: how do I know the same thing won’t happen to them tomorrow?” she said. Last month, the International Crisis Group said clashes between the militants and Turkish troops were largely confined to northern parts of Iraq and Syria, with violence on Turkish soil at its lowest level since 2015. “At least we can breathe a bit now,” she said. “I want the bloodshed to stop. I want a ceasefire. And I am not alone.” — AFP
