Securing the release of the jailed founder of the Kurdish militant group PKK is needed for the success of the emerging peace process with Turkey, one of the group’s senior leaders told AFP.
Abdullah Ocalan’s “freedom is crucial for this process to advance with greater effectiveness,” Devrim Palu told AFP in an interview in northern Iraq on Sunday as the PKK began withdrawing all of its fighters from Turkey.
Ocalan, who founded the PKK in 1978, is the embodiment of the Kurdish rebellion against Turkey which lasted more four decades and cost some 50,000 lives.
Now 76, he has spearheaded efforts to switch from armed conflict to a democratic political struggle for the rights of Turkey’s Kurdish minority, leading the process from his prison cell on Imrali island near Istanbul where he has been held in solitary since 1999.
The PKK has repeatedly demanded his release.
“He is the person who initiated this process. He should be able to meet people easily and engage in dialogue,” Palu told AFP, saying his conditions should be “urgently” improved.
“It’s very difficult to carry out such an important process in isolation or in prison conditions. His freedom is crucial for this process to advance with greater effectiveness.”
Sunday’s withdrawal was a move to protect the peace process from “provocations”, Palu said, also warning against the use of “polarising language”.
“Within the political environment there are those who are against this process and those who support it. We’re not saying everyone should have the same approach, we just need to pay attention to the language that is used.”
– Won’t ‘happen overnight’ –
The PKK understood the peace process would take time, he said.
“We are not approaching this matter as hopeless, saying ‘Turkey hasn’t taken any action’.. Such processes don’t happen overnight or in the space of a few months,” he said.
“Undoubtedly, there will be phases where they drag on or sometimes stall, then the path opens again. But for them to be more on track.. certain steps need to be taken,” he said.
Earlier, the PKK urged Ankara to expedite legal measures to regulate the status of militants who have given up the armed struggle and want to return to Turkey to engage in the democratic process, saying “significant steps” needed to be taken.
But the PKK had acted in good faith with its move to destroy a first batch of weapons in July, and now withdraw all of its militants from Turkey, he said.
“With these steps, we have demonstrated not only to the Turkish public but also to the world how sincere and serious we are about resolving this issue,” he said.
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© Agence France-Presse
