Jailed PKK leader calls for legal reforms as Türkiye advances PKK peace framework

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.

• Türkiye adopts legal framework for dissolution of PKK militant group

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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