Next visit to Öcalan must lead to PKK’s end: Bahçeli
ANKARA
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has called for the dissolution of PKK following a planned second visit by Kurdish politicians to its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Öcalan.
His remarks follow a meeting between a delegation from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and Öcalan on the İmralı prison island off Istanbul where he is serving a life sentence.
"After the second meeting between the DEM [Party] delegation and İmralı, the end of PKK's organizational existence must be declared without any conditions," Bahçeli said during a parliamentary address on Jan. 14. "This is our absolute and uncompromising expectation."
The visit to Öcalan on Dec. 28, 2024, was the first since the pro-Kurdish DEM Party's predecessor, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), met with him in April 2015.
Delegation members, including lawmakers Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan, along with former mayor Ahmet Türk, have since engaged in talks with political parties in parliament.
Party insiders have said a roadmap is expected to emerge from subsequent discussions with Öcalan, with a follow-up visit expected this week.
"We aim to build the roof of a terrorism-free century with the unification of hearts," Bahçeli said. "With cautious and prudent optimism, we will hopefully raise the bar in a just struggle that will not prejudice the blessed existence of our state."
The visit to Öcalan’s prison on İmralı Island became possible after Bahçeli invited him to come to parliament to renounce terror and disband PKK. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Bahçeli’s ally, backed the appeal as a “historic window of opportunity.”
PKK is listed as a terror organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union.
In a statement following their return from İmralı, the DEM Party said Öcalan was "ready to make a call" to back a new initiative by the Turkish government to end decades of conflict.
Bahçeli reinforced his position on Jan. 14, stating, "There is no other solution left but to cut the vein of separatism, remove the weeds and unite simultaneously in common history and culture."
Detained 25 years ago by Turkish security forces in Kenya after years on the run, Öcalan was sentenced to death. However, Türkiye abolished capital punishment in 2004 and he is spending his remaining years in an isolation cell on İmralı.
