PKK confirms impossibility of its dissolution

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), whose historic leader called for the disbandment of the group, has said that it is “impossible” at this time to hold a conference to declare its dissolution, according to a senior official in the armed Kurdish organisation.

“Every day (Turkish) reconnaissance planes are flying overhead. They are carrying out daily bombings and every day they are attacking,” Cemil Bayik, a PKK leader, told Kurdish Sterk TV.

He stressed that “holding a congress in these conditions is impossible and very dangerous,” noting that such a congress would take place “if the conditions were fulfilled”, according to a news agency close to the party.

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The PKK, whose leadership is in the mountains of northern Iraq, responded positively on 1 March to a call by its historic leader, Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned for 26 years, to dissolve the movement and end a 40-year struggle against the Ankara authorities that has claimed the lives of at least 40,000 people.

The PKK, which Ankara and its Western allies classify as a “terrorist organisation”, announced an immediate ceasefire but demanded that Öcalan, imprisoned on an island off Istanbul: “Personally preside over the congress leading to its dissolution.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Öcalan’s call, as part of the dialogue launched by Ankara in the fall, is a “historic opportunity” for Turks and Kurds, who, by some estimates, represent 20 per cent of Turkiye’s population of 85 million.

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