Murat Yetkin: PKK Tells Ankara It Won’t Hold Disarmament Congress Without Öcalan’s Leadership

Tensions are rising and nerves are fraying in Ankara following a statement by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) regarding the long-anticipated “laying down arms” (self-dissolutuon) convention awaited by President Tayyip Erdoğan’s administration. After Erdoğan’s ally, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, suggested the idea, PKK’s founding leader Abdullah Öcalan, from his prison on İmralı Island, called on February 27 for the organization to convene a congress to “lay down arms and dissolve itself.” In response, PKK leadership declared, “We will not convene a congress unless it is led by Öcalan.”

During its May Day celebration on April 28, PKK leadership reiterated that they were awaiting Öcalan’s “return to conditions where he can live and work freely and lead the party congress,” emphasizing that “no concrete developments” had yet occurred on this front.

A Growing Gordian Knot

In short, the PKK leadership demands that Öcalan lead the disarmament and dissolution congress from İmralı. It is as if acting PKK leader Cemil Bayık, based in Iraq’s Qandil Mountains, is telling Öcalan: “You started this, you should finish it.”

Meanwhile, Ankara insists that any progress, including granting Öcalan better imprisonment conditions or making legal arrangements, is contingent upon the PKK’s decision to disarm and dissolve itself.

Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç has previously stated that Öcalan cannot lead the congress via live video link, though indirect means of communication might be explored. Ankara is wary of risking a live broadcast where Öcalan might deliver a message that deviates from what has been agreed upon.

The PKK appears to be trying to exploit the situation to buy time and gain leverage.

Rojava Congress and Kurdish Unity

While Ankara has been awaiting a disarmament decision from Qandil, a different development unfolded in Syria’s Qamishli, the twin city of Turkey’s Nusaybin, on April 26.

There, the “National Unity of Rojava Kurds” conference convened, attended by representatives of the DEM Party (focused on the Kurdish issue) from the Turkish Parliament. The participants called for political representation in the Syrian government and autonomy, including the recognition of Kurdish as an official language.

While the ruling AKP and MHP officials expected the PKK to make a decision by late April or early May, the PKK is sticking firmly to its precondition, stalling for time, and seeking international political support.

The Syrian government, under Ahmed Shara, swiftly condemned the Rojava Congress’s decisions — in which the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, the PYD, was also involved — as violations of Syria’s territorial integrity and previous agreements with the SDF.

Ankara’s Patience Wears Thin

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking from Qatar on April 27, also reacted strongly: “We do not accept any initiative that seeks to perpetuate terrorist organizations in Syria,” Fidan said. “We expect the agreement between the YPG and the Syrian government, made months ago, to be implemented. Just as DAESH [ISIS] was elimininated from the Syrian equation, so too must the PKK — either voluntarily, peacefully, or by other means.”

Fidan’s final remark indicates Ankara’s escalating frustration and mounting threats, as no confirmation has yet arrived about the PKK’s expected disarmament and dissolution congress.

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