PKK Endorses Abdullah Ocalan’s Call and Announces Laying Down of Weapons

We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by A Nova Democracia (AND).

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) endorsed the appeal of the party leader Abdullah Ocalan on March 1 to lay own their weapons and dissolve the Party. The decision was announced at a press conference at the Elit World Hotel in Beyoglu, Istanbul, after a visit by a PKK delegation and the Turkish DEM [Translator’s note: Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party] Party to the island where Ocalan is imprisoned.

“As the PKK, we agree with the content of the call as it is and we declare that we will fulfill and implement the requirements of the call from our side. But we want to stress that, for success, democratic policies and legal foundations must also be adequate,” said the text read by Party representatives.

Justification

Both Ocalan and the PKK claim that the PKK’s historical claims were achieved by the advancement of “democratic measures” in Turkey under the fascist government of Erdogan, so there would be no more reasons to continue in armed struggle.

The Party leader said that the reason for the emergence of PKK was the “total denial of Kurdish reality, restrictions on basic rights and freedoms, especially expression”, and that, given the advance of “democratic measures” in Turkey, “armed resistance has no more meaning”.

Already the PKK concluded that “it is clear that the PKK was the great movement of heroism and the last half century in Kurdistan. Everything was won with a very brave and selfless struggle, with a price and effort. We celebrate all the heroic martyrs of this great struggle for freedom with deep respect, love and gratitude.”

“New Beginning”

The statement says that the call of Ocalan “is not an end,” but “a new beginning.” “We are taking these historical achievements for a new struggle,” says another excerpt from the statement. For this moment, Ocalan’s liberation is a “necessary step”, according to the text. “So far we were the ones who have led war, with all its flaws and inadequacies; But only the Leader Apo [Translator’s note: referring to Andullah Ocalan] can govern the age of peace and democratic society,” they say.

Evidence

The PKK ceasefire statement is not a complete surprise, as Turkey’s fascist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was already negotiating a “peaceful solution” to the Kurdish issue with Ocalan.

The famous Turkish deputy Devlet Bahçeli, from the far right right Party Nationalist Action, had also given evidence that the PKK capitulation was about to happen.

At the end of the past year, Bahçeli said that “Ocalan must speak to the DEM Party faction. He should summon the organization to drop their weapons and serve the country,” as described by the Turkish revolutionary newspaper Yeni Demokrasi as an “attempt to position itself against the emerging Kurdish threat”.

According to the journalists of the revolutionary Turkish press, the reactionaries who tried to liquidate the Kurdish struggle through the offering of crumbs decided to change tactics at the end of 2024. “While the old ‘liquiation process’ consisted of accepting ‘national’ crumbs in exchange for the disarmament of the Kurdish national struggle, the current step is the Kurdish National Movement to offer their organizational and political opportunities in all its parts, including Rojava, to US direction in exchange for the rights in question” they point out in an article from November 11 of 2024.

The evidences became stronger after the coup d’état in Syria by the pro-Yankee and pro-Turkish expansionism gang Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The Turkish State saw there an opportunity to move the Syrian “National” Army (SNA), a pro-Turkey faction, against the Kurdish Syria areas, controlled by SDF-YPG, and put pressure on some PKK bases.

This scenario was analyzed by The Red Herald. “(…) altogether make up an excellent framework for the ongoing negotiations with Öcalan on a “peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem”. What you get at the negotiation table is merely a reflection of the results on the battlefield – the Turkish strategists know that very well.” they wrote in an article December 11, 2024.

Good for USA and for Erdogan

Speaking of the USA, the White House of the government of ultra-reactionary Donald Trump greeted the Ocalan statement and the capitulation of the PKK leadership. The spokesman for the Yankee National Security Council has considered the statement “a significant development and we hope that it will help assuage our Turkish allies about US counter-ISIS partners in northeast Syria. We believe it will help to bring peace to this troubled region.”

The group’s capitulation also tends to favor the government of Erdogan, serving as powerful political capital for the fascist president of the country.

To the Contrary

The definition of the PKK goes in the opposite direction of the development of the objective situation of the Kurdish cause. Erdogan has already made it clear that he does not intend to stop struggling against the Kurdish cause, despite the agreement with Ocalan and the PKK. At a February meeting with the Syrian HTS faction leader, he said that “I expressed to him that we are ready to provide the necessary support to Syria in the fight against all forms of terrorism, whether ISIS or PKK.”

That is, despite the agreement, armed groups confronting for the Kurdish cause in other countries will continue to be picked up as “terrorists” by the Turkish government and to be repressed. The same will happen with the Kurds in Turkey that decide to break with the path of Ocalan and follow the armed struggle.

The statement of capitulation also contradicts the path followed by progressive and revolutionary forces in the Middle East and worldwide. Increasingly, these groups advocate persistence on the path of armed struggle for liberation.

In the Middle East, this is the situation of Ansar Allah in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the various organizations of the Palestinian National Resistance.

Historical Limitations

At the same time, this expresses the historical limitations of certain leaders of the Kurdish National Movement, which, given their bourgeois class nature, choose to support themselves in the financing and logistical support of counterrevolutionary sectors, such as the USA, or non-reliable classes of the Kurdish nationality, such as the big bourgeoisie, believing that the means of war are the most important, rather than forming alliances with the revolutionary classes of their own countries in the struggle for New Democratic revolution, in which the Kurdish national minority will have its rights fully guaranteed, and, in the future, ensuring the proclamation of Kurdistan.