“We have done what was asked of us. Now it is the turn of the Turkish state. There have been talks in Turkey, but there has been no concrete progress. Now we are waiting for the actions of the Turkish state,” Malazgirt said during an interview conducted by a French agency in the mountains of northern Iraq.
The Kurdish commander praised the establishment of an inter-party commission in the Turkish parliament that deals with the peace process, but said that “this is not the only necessary action” that he expects from Ankara.
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“PKK fulfilled its obligations”
“We have two demands. First, the release of our leader Apo [po kurdyjsku to słowo oznacza wujka]. Without this, the process will fail. Secondly, constitutional and official recognition of the Kurdish nation in Turkey,” the AFP interlocutor said.
Speaking on Saturday at ceremonies organized to mark the 47th anniversary of the establishment of the PKK, Malazgirt noted that the organization had “fulfilled its obligations.” “The PKK has fulfilled its obligations, but the state has still not taken specific actions. If the Turkish state really defends the Kurdish-Turkish brotherhood, the first step that should be taken is to release leader Apo,” noted Malazgirt, quoted by the ANF agency associated with the Kurdish movement.
On Monday, a delegation from the Turkish parliamentary committee overseeing the disarmament of the PKK paid its first visit to Imrali Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on the island since 1999. The office of the speaker of the Turkish parliament said in a statement that the meeting “achieved positive results in terms of social integration, strengthening brotherhood and positive development of the peace process” covering the entire region.
The peace process was initiated in October 2024 by the leader of the nationalist National Action Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli, calling on the leadership of the PKK – an organization considered terrorist, among others. by Turkey, the US and the EU – to lay down their arms. In response, Ocalan asked in February this year. to the fighters to end the fighting.
On May 12, the PKK announced the end of the armed uprising, which resulted in the deaths of over 40,000 people during the 40-year war. people. At the beginning of July, the fighters began the process of laying down their weapons, destroying several dozen symbolic weapons in the mountains of northern Iraq, and at the end of October they withdrew completely from Turkey.
In recent years, the Turkish army's fighting against Kurdish guerrillas has taken place primarily in the autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, where both Kurdish fighters and Türkiye maintain military bases. Türkiye has also undertaken numerous offensives against the Syrian Kurds.
