Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), issued a statement on Friday (27 February) calling on Ankara to adopt legislation aimed at promoting political inclusion.
“The transition to democratic integration necessitates laws of peace,” he said in a statement read aloud on his behalf by representatives of Türkiye’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party.
Öcalan also repeated his call for the PKK to abandon its decades-long armed insurgency against the Turkish state. “The door is opening to a new political era and strategy,” he said.
“We aim to close the period of politics based on violence and open a process based on the rule of law,” he added.
The statement coincided with the first anniversary of Öcalan’s landmark appeal for the PKK, which is based in northern Iraq, to lay down its arms.
In response to that appeal, Ankara pledged to introduce legislative reforms aimed at expanding Kurdish political participation and addressing longstanding grievances.
Last week, Türkiye’s parliament unveiled a 60-page legal framework intended to guide the ongoing peace process and reintegrate former PKK militants into society. The document calls for democratic reforms to proceed in tandem with reciprocal steps by the PKK to disband and surrender its weapons.
In his statement on Friday, Öcalan appeared to endorse the framework, stressing the need for what he described as a “legal framework encompassing political, social, economic and cultural dimensions”.
Despite the renewed peace efforts, the PKK continues to be designated as a terrorist organisation by Türkiye, the European Union and the U.S.
For decades, the PKK waged a violent insurgency against the Turkish state, in which tens of thousands of people - including civilians and military personnel - were killed.
As of publication, Turkish officials had not responded to Öcalan’s latest statement.
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The death toll from heavy rains and flooding in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state has risen to 46, authorities said, with 21 people still reported missing. The storms triggered landslides and widespread flooding, displacing thousands across Juiz de Fora and Uba.
The situation in Cuba was heating up and called for restraint following a deadly incident involving a Florida-registered speedboat off the coast of the Caribbean island, the Kremlin said on Thursday (26 February).
Syria’s economy is showing clear signs of recovery, with economic activity accelerating in recent months, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday.
Pakistani air strikes hit a weapons depot on the western outskirts of Kabul overnight, triggering hours of secondary explosions that rattled homes across the Afghan capital and left residents fearing further violence.
Pakistani air strikes hit a weapons depot on the western outskirts of Kabul overnight, triggering hours of secondary explosions that rattled homes across the Afghan capital and left residents fearing further violence.
Pakistan’s declaration of an “open war” with Afghanistan must be understood in the context of months of escalating violence, regional analysts have said, describing the latest developments as a significant shift in the nature of the conflict.
Israeli strikes killed five people in Gaza on Thursday (26 February), according to health officials in the territory. The Israeli military said separately that it had killed a militant who posed an imminent threat to its forces in southern Gaza.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday urged Afghanistan and Pakistan to resolve their differences through dialogue, offering Tehran’s assistance to facilitate understanding between its eastern neighbours.
Ankara has rejected media reports claiming it plans to deploy military forces into Iranian territory in the event of a U.S. attack on the Islamic republic.
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