Turkey has not taken a step to advance Kurdish peace talks: PKK

Turkey has not taken step to advance Kurdish peace process — Murat Karayilan, a senior figure from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and member of its political wing, Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), September 2025. Photo: Screengrab/ANF/video

Ocalan must be released, Karayilan says

DORTMUND,— Murat Karayilan, a senior figure from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and member of its political wing, Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), issued a video message to the 33rd International Kurdish Culture Festival, held in Dortmund in Germany under the slogan “Free life through free leadership – for a democratic society.”

The event, dedicated to fallen PKK commanders Nureddin Sofi, Emine Erciyes, Koçer Urfa, and Baxtiyar Gabar, brought together thousands of Kurds and their supporters across Europe.

“The Turkish state has not taken a single step to date,” Karayilan said, criticizing Ankara for failing to respond to initiatives that he claimed were launched by Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned PKK founder, after his 2021 call for a new political phase.

Karayilan stressed that genuine peace and a democratic society in Turkey could only be achieved through two critical steps: the release of Öcalan and the recognition of Kurdish cultural and linguistic rights. “Leader Apo’s freedom is not just the freedom of one person. For us, he is our identity and the architect of this process. If he is not free, nothing will happen,” he declared.

The PKK leader accused Turkish authorities of excluding Öcalan from negotiations and called this approach a contradiction. “How will the guerrillas lay down their arms, how will Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood be achieved, when the architect of peace is in prison?” he asked.

Karayilan also claimed that his movement had already demonstrated its seriousness toward peace. Referring to an internal decision taken in July, he said, “We burned our weapons. This was not easy. But we did it strategically to show our commitment.” He warned, however, that threats or schemes would not succeed against the Kurdish movement.

Turning his attention to Europe, Karayilan argued that the Kurdish question was “created in Lausanne” and urged European institutions to take responsibility. He specifically called on the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, which is due to meet soon, to address Öcalan’s situation. “If the Council of Europe truly wants peace, it must take responsibility. The physical freedom of Leader Apo and granting the Right to Hope would usher in a new era,” he said.

Karayilan urged Kurds in the diaspora—numbering over two million in Europe, by his estimate—to intensify their activism. He called on women and youth in particular to organize through communes and assemblies, stressing that every individual must take on roles as organizers and diplomats.

“We did not arrive at this point easily. We paid a heavy price and lost many heroic martyrs,” he said, naming several senior PKK figures and fallen fighters, including Emine Erciyes, whom he described as “a symbol of Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood.” He vowed that their sacrifices would not be forgotten.

Karayilan concluded by emphasizing that the current period represented a “turning point” in the Kurdish struggle. “We must strongly advance Leader Apo’s Peace and Democratic Society initiative. For this, I wish you all success on behalf of our Movement. Long live our people’s struggle, Bijî Serok Apo!”

In July 2025, a symbolic disarmament ceremony was held in Iraqi Kurdistan (Bashur Kurdistan), where 30 members of the PKK publicly destroyed and burned their weapons.

The move followed the group’s announcement in May of its formal dissolution and a pledge to pursue democratic and political avenues to address Kurdish demands.

The ceremony was the outcome of months of indirect discussions involving Abdullah Öcalan, the PKK’s jailed founder, who has been serving a life sentence in Turkey since 1999.

Founded in 1978 by a group of leftist students at Ankara University, the PKK launched its armed struggle in 1984 with the goal of securing autonomy for Kurds in Turkish Kurdistan (Bakur Kurdistan) or Northern Kurdistan.

Over the following four decades, the insurgency became one of the region’s most protracted conflicts, leaving deep scars across Turkey and its Kurdish-majority areas. The war claimed more than 40,000 lives, including both PKK fighters and Turkish security forces, according to official figures from Ankara.

Turkey’s Kurdish population, estimated at around 30 percent of its 85 million citizens, has long been denied formal constitutional recognition, fueling tensions and unrest that the PKK sought to channel into armed resistance.

Now, with the group formally stepping away from armed struggle, Kurdish leaders say they hope the focus can shift toward political participation, cultural rights, and broader democratic reforms.

(Credit: Firat News Agency ANF | Agencies)