Kurdish leader calls for end to armed struggle

Ocalan has called for PKK guerrilla fighters to disband

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) declared a ceasefire on Saturday in their war against the Turkish state.

They are following the orders of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, who called for the group to lay down its arms and disband.

His announcement on Thursday of last week marks a crucial turning point in the Turkish state’s decades-long war on the PKK. It was at the heart of a movement that resisted state terror and waged an armed struggle for liberation from the 1980s.

Ocalan, who founded the PKK in 1978, was imprisoned in 1999. His statement follows a series of meetings between himself and Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party, the DEM, and could secure his freedom.

A statement from the PKK said, “When founded, the PKK was necessary to resist Kurdish repression.” But it added that since 2014 president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime “has taken democratic steps towards the recognition of Kurds, and so armed struggle no longer holds any meaning. There is no alternative to democracy in the pursuit and realisation of a political system.”

Negotiations between Ocalan and Erdogan’s regime began last year. In October, Ocalan’s release was suggested under the “right to hope” principle, which limits sentences to a maximum of 25 years.

His statement comes amid increasing repression of pro-Kurdish politicians and activists in Turkey. Over the past few weeks Erdogan has arrested hundreds of left wing activists, trade unionists and journalists—and removed democratically-elected pro-Kurdish politicians from their posts.

This is partly motivated by a desire to stamp out political opposition. Erdogan’s ruling AKP party has seen its popular support decline.

At the same time, Erdogan’s deal with Ocalan suggests he’s trying to win favour with Kurds—a group he’s violently repressed for over a decade. Support from pro-Kurdish parties in parliament could mean Erdogan can extend his presidential rule beyond 2028.

The full details of the agreement are still unclear—one question is whether Turkey will release other political prisoners.

Another crucial question is what happens in Syria, where Erdogan is looking to increase Turkish influence in the wake of the Bashar al-Assad regime’s fall. He could look to make an arrangement with other Kurdish forces in the country.

“All armed groups” could mean Ocalan is referring to the PKK’s offshoots in Syria and Iran. In Syria the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) has an armed wing, the People’s Defence Units (PYG). It is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which control parts of the north east of the country.

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PYD co-chair Salih Muslim responded to Ocalan’s statement, saying, “There would be no need for weapons if we were allowed to work politically. If the reasons for carrying weapons disappear, we will lay them down.”

Mazloum Abdi, commander in chief of the SDF said, “Ocalan’s call is positive to end Turkey’s pretexts to attack us.”

Similarly, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) chief Bafel Talabani urged all Kurds to “unite” and “resolve issues through peaceful dialogue”. It runs the Kurdistan Regional Government, an autonomous area in northern Iraq

For more than a century, imperialist powers have carved up the Kurdish people’s land and meted out violent repression. And the PKK has bravely fought against the Turkish state.

There are limits in a strategy of armed struggle that looked to support from other states. For example, the SDF relied on the United States for support in its battle against Isis in Syria.

But the US ditched its support for the Kurds to appease Turkey—and that was far from the first time it betrayed the Kurds.

In 2005, Ocalan called on his supporters to renounce the idea of an independent Kurdish state and fight for autonomy instead. Now it seems Ocalan’s new gambit is to look to the “official routes” over armed resistance to win some Kurdish rights.

Challenging imperialism, through mass movements and revolts in the region, can bring genuine liberation for the Kurdish people

And in Britain, we have to stand in solidarity with the Kurds and their struggle for freedom.