Latest news with #KurdishAutonomy
Al Arabiya
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Kurds plan Damascus talks as visions for Syria collide
Syrian Kurdish parties will send a delegation to Damascus soon for talks over their region's political future, a leading Kurdish politician said, as they seek to advance their goal of regional autonomy despite opposition from the interim government. More than six months after Bashar al-Assad was toppled, Kurdish demands for regional autonomy have emerged as one of the main fault lines in the new Syria, opposed by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and his powerful allies in neighboring Turkey. Oppressed by Assad, rival Syrian Kurdish groups last month issued a shared vision calling for the unification of the Kurdish regions as a political and administrative unit within a federal Syria, aiming to safeguard Kurdish gains during the war. 'Our Kurdish vision document will be the basis for negotiations with Damascus. The delegation is close to being ready to negotiate with Damascus,' Aldar Xelil, a member of the presidential council of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the dominant faction in northeastern Syria, told Reuters. But he added: 'We may face some difficulties because their position is still inflexible.' His comments point to the limited progress in bridging gaps between the sides since they signed a deal in March aimed at integrating the Kurdish-led security forces and other governing bodies in northeastern Syria with the central state in Damascus. The Kurdish-led authorities have already had contacts with Damascus, including via a committee tasked with discussing the future of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, a powerful security force backed by the United States. Last month's Kurdish declaration was adopted by both the PYD and its main rival, the Kurdish National Council (ENKS). 'We seek discussion' Following the declaration, Sharaa's office issued a statement rejecting any attempt 'to impose a partition or create separatist cantons' without a national consensus. The Kurdish groups have in turn rejected the transitional arrangements drawn up by his administration, including a constitutional declaration that focused power in Sharaa's hands and strengthened the role of Islamic law. Xelil described the steps taken by Damascus as unilateral but added: 'We seek discussion and participation.' Calls for federal rule have gathered momentum in Syria since March's mass killings of members of the Alawite minority by militants in western Syria's coastal region, with some Alawites also calling for decentralized rule. Xelil said the role of the Kurdish-led security forces was to ensure the 'security and safety of this region' and if this is 'not guaranteed constitutionally, legally, and politically, then discussing the issue of weapons will be futile.' Turkey, which has emerged with big influence in the new Syria, has long opposed Syrian Kurdish autonomy. After last month's announcement, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed calls for federalism as 'nothing more than a raw dream.' Turkey's suspicion of the dominant Syrian Kurdish group stems from its ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which earlier this month decided to dissolve itself and end decades of armed struggle with Turkey. Xelil said he expected the PKK move to impact Turkey's position on Syria. 'Turkey viewed the presence of the PKK or groups influenced by it as a pretext for attacking northeastern Syria,' he said. 'There will be no pretext for Turkey to attack the region.'
Al Jazeera
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Kurdish leader Ocalan told the PKK to disband, it did: Here's what to know
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) says it is disbanding after more than 40 years of armed struggle against the Turkish state. The announcement came after the PKK held its congress in northern Iraq on Friday, about two months after its imprisoned founder, Abdullah Ocalan, also known as 'Appo', called on the group to disarm in February. For most of its history, the PKK has been labelled a terrorist group by Turkiye, the European Union and the United States. It fought for Kurdish autonomy for years, a fight that has been declared over now. This is all you need to know about why Ocalan and the PKK have given up their armed struggle. Ocalan was born to a poor Kurdish farming family on April 4, 1948, in Omerli, Sanliurfa, a Kurdish-majority part of Turkiye. He moved to Ankara to study political science at the university there, where he became politically active; driven, biographers say, by the sense of marginalisation that many Kurds in Turkiye felt. By the mid-1970s, he was advocating for Kurdish nationalism and went on to found the PKK in 1978. Six years later, the group launched a separatist rebellion against Turkiye under his command. Ocalan had absolute rule over the PKK and worked to stamp out rival Kurdish groups, monopolising the struggle for Kurdish liberation, according to Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence, by Aliza Marcus. At the time, Kurds were denied the right to speak their language, give their children Kurdish names or show any expression of nationalism. Despite Ocalan's authoritarian rule, his charisma and positioning as a champion of Kurdish rights led most Kurds across Turkiye to love and respect him, calling him 'Appo', which means Uncle. Violent. More than 40,000 people died between 1984 and 2024, with thousands of Kurds fleeing the violence in southeastern Turkiye into cities further north. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Ocalan led operations from neighbouring Syria, which was a source of tensions between the then-Assad regime and Turkiye. The PKK resorted to brutal tactics beginning in the late 1980s and early 90s. According to a report by the European Council on Foreign Relations from 2007, the group, under Ocalan, kidnapped foreign tourists, adopted suicide bombing operations and attacked Turkish diplomatic offices in Europe. Perhaps even worse, the PKK would repress Kurdish civilians who did not assist the group in its guerrilla warfare. Eventually, more than a decade after he was caught. In 1998, Ocalan was forced to flee Syria due to the threat of a Turkish incursion to capture him. A year later, Turkish agents arrested him on a plane in Nairobi, Kenya, thanks to intel received from the US. He was brought back to Turkiye and handed the death penalty, yet his sentence was changed to life in prison after Turkiye abolished capital punishment in 2004 in a bid to become a member of the EU. By 2013, Ocalan changed his stance on separatism and began lobbying for comprehensive Kurdish rights and greater regional autonomy in Turkiye, saying he no longer believed in the effectiveness of armed rebellion. This radical shift led to the start of a shaky peace process between the PKK and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), headed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The peace process led to some freedoms for Kurds, yet fighting erupted between the government and the PKK in 2015 due in part to fears that the party was trying to create a Kurdish statelet in neighbouring Syria during its civil war. At the time, many Kurds from southern Turkiye had left for Syria to help the Kurds there fight against ISIL (ISIS). In 2015, the AK Party had also formed a new alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which was staunchly opposed to any peace process involving the PKK. In announcing its disarmament, the PKK said it has 'completed its historical mission' by 'breaking the policy of denial and annihilation of our people and bringing the Kurdish issue to a point where solving it can occur through democratic politics'. However, analysts argue that there are other reasons behind the decision. The PKK and its Kurdish allies in the region are more vulnerable than before due to recent developments, according to Sinan Ulgen, an expert on Turkiye and senior fellow at Carnegie Europe in Brussels. 'The reason the PKK gave up its armed struggle has to do with the change in the international context,' Ulgen explained. US President Donald Trump does not see Syria as a 'strategic focal point' for foreign policy and is, therefore, unlikely to keep supporting Kurdish armed groups in the country as it had during the fight against ISIL, he explained. In addition, the new government in Syria is on good terms with Turkiye, unlike under the now-overthrown Assad regime. This new relationship could significantly hurt the ability of the PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), to operate along the Syria-Turkiye border. The political climate seems ripe for that. Main political parties, such as the AK Party and its rival Republican People's Party (CHP), have vocally or tacitly supported a new peace process. But it was the MHP, long opposed to any overtures to the Kurds, that created the window for a new peace process. In April 2024, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli invited Ocalan to renounce 'terrorism' in front of Turkiye's parliament in exchange for possible parole. 'The fact it was Bahceli … was kind of unbelievable,' said Sinem Adar, an expert on Turkiye with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWB). Bahceli's change of heart is probably to help his coalition partner, Erdogan, run in and win the next national election, experts told Al Jazeera. Under the constitution, Erdogan cannot run for another term unless an early election is called, which needs 360 out of 600 votes in parliament. To add the votes of Kurdish delegates from the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) to the MHP-AK Party alliance's votes, '[Erdogan] needs to broaden his political support base in parliament over and above the current ruling alliance', Carnegie's Ulgen told Al Jazeera. It is unclear if he will be released, but his prison conditions could significantly improve, said Ulgen. He said the government would prefer to gradually increase Ocalan's freedoms, so it can gauge the reactions of his support base and the broader public. Many people in Turkiye still view Ocalan as a 'terrorist' and blame him for a conflict that has taken the lives of so many. 'I think the government wants to test the waters before allowing Ocalan to go free,' Ulgen told Al Jazeera.
Jordan Times
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Jordan Times
Kurdish militant group PKK says disbanding, ending armed struggle
Supporters display a poster depicting jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party Abdullah Ocalan, 75, after he called on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to disarm and dissolve itself in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, on February 27, 2025 (AFP photo) ISTANBUL — The Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK] on Monday announced its dissolution, saying it was ending its armed struggle against the Turkish state and drawing a line under its bloody four-decade insurgency. Founded in the late 1970s by Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK carried out attacks aimed at defending Kurdish autonomy in Turkey that cost more than 40,000 lives. "The 12th PKK Congress has decided to dissolve the PKK's organisational structure and end its method of armed struggle," the group said in a statement published by the pro-Kurdish ANF news agency. The move was welcomed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP party as an "important step", saying the implementation of the process would be "meticulously monitored" by the government. The historic announcement came after an appeal by Ocalan, who on February 27 urged his fighters disarm and disband in a letter from Istanbul's Imrali prison island, where he has been held since 1999. He also asked the PKK to hold a congress to formalise the decision, which the call and declared a ceasefire, holding its congress early last week in Iraq's Kandil mountains. There its leader took "decisions of historic importance concerning the PKK's activities", ANF had reported on Friday. AKP spokesman Omer Celik said if the decision were "implemented in practise and realised in all its dimensions" it would open the door to a new era. "The PKK's decision to dissolve itself and lay down its arms following the call from Imrali is an important step towards a terror-free Turkey," Celik said. "The full and concrete implementation of the decision to dissolve and surrender arms... will be a turning point," he added, saying the process would be "meticulously monitored" by the government. 'Huge win for Erdogan' The declaration was the culmination of seven months of work to renew long-stalled talks that began in October when Ankara offered Ocalan an unexpected olive branch. "If the PKK announces it is disbanding and finalises the process without any road accidents, that will be a huge win for Erdogan," Gonul Tol of the Washington-based Middle East Institute told AFP. She said seeking a rapprochement with the Kurds was very much related to domestic politics, coming just months after Erdogan's AKP suffered a blow at the ballot box. Analysts say a deal with the Kurds could allow Erdogan to amend the constitution and extend his term in office, while simultaneously driving a wedge between pro-Kurdish parties and the rest of Turkey's opposition. "The main driver behind this Ocalan opening has always been about consolidating Erdogan's rule. Because if this whole process succeeds, he will go into the 2028 elections as a stronger candidate who is facing a divided opposition," Tol said. In a weekend speech, Erdogan hinted the dissolution could be announced at any moment, saying that "We are advancing with firm steps on the path toward the goal of a terror-free Turkey". The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Ankara, Washington and Brussels, has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. Its original aim was to carve out a homeland for Kurds, who make up about 20 per cent of Turkey's 85 million people.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kurdish PKK militants announce decision to dissolve after decades of conflict with Turkey
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said on Monday it would dissolve itself, according to media close to the militant separatist group, in what would be a historic move after decades of conflict with Turkey that have killed tens of thousands of people. 'The 12th Congress of the PKK decided to dissolve the organizational structure of the PKK and to end the armed struggle method,' the group said in a statement, according to the pro-Kurdish news outlet Firat News Agency. It added that the 'practical process' of dissolution would be managed by their imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, and that they have 'ended the work carried out under the name of the PKK.' For almost five decades, Turkey has been at war with the PKK, founded by Ocalan in 1978. Much of the fighting has focused on the group's desire to establish an independent Kurdish state in the country's southeast. But in recent years the group has called for more autonomy within Turkey instead. In March, the PKK declared an immediate ceasefire after Ocalan called on fighters to lay down their arms and dissolve the group.
Irish Times
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Separatist Kurdish group PKK to disband
The separatist Kurdish group, the PKK , has agreed to lay down arms to end a 40-year war for autonomy against Turkey , a historic step that could strengthen the Nato member's aspirations to become a regional powerhouse. The PKK decided to disarm and disband at a congress last week, the pro-Kurdish ANF news agency reported on Monday, after declaring a ceasefire on March 1st. The group has been affiliated with US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces and the decision could ease tensions between Ankara and Washington over the future of Kurds and power sharing in Turkey's southeastern neighbour. 'The congress has assessed that PKK struggle has destroyed the policy of rejection and destruction against our people and has led the Kurdish issue to the point of solution via democratic politics, and that in this respect, the PKK has completed its historical mission,' ANF cited a statement from the congress as saying. READ MORE It is unclear whether Turkey will offer safe passage for the group's leadership to third countries or declare amnesty for thousands of militants if they return home. The PKK said its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, should lead the political process, according to the statement. 'At this stage, it's important for parliament to play its role with a historic responsibility.' The conflict with the PKK has exacted a heavy toll on Turkey, with an estimated 40,000 people – most of them Kurds – killed since the insurgency began in 1984, including both militants and civilians. During the height of the fighting in the 1990s, Turkish military campaigns in the southeast emptied entire villages, displacing hundreds of thousands and fuelling chronic regional instability. Urban centres such as Istanbul and Ankara were repeatedly targeted in PKK-linked bombings, eroding public confidence and contributing to security concerns that weighed on tourism, investment and domestic political cohesion. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made resolving the Kurdish conflict a central aim as he seeks to thwart what he sees as the growing threat of Kurdish nationalism in the region. If successful, it would boost Turkey's aspirations to reshape the Middle East and burnish support for Mr Erdogan as he seeks to rewrite the constitution and extend his two-decade long rule. Turkey is now facing the question of how to address demands from the PKK and the pro-Kurdish DEM party to improve rights for the ethnic group. They are calling for recognition of Kurdish identity and culture in the country's constitution and permission for Kurdish language teaching in schools, alongside the devolution of more powers to local authorities in Turkey's Kurdish majority southeast. Kurds make up almost a fifth of Turkey's 90 million population. The bloody conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the PKK took up arms for autonomy in 1984. – Bloomberg
