KCK Says Türkiye's Peace Law Fails Without Öcalan's Role

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Türkiye's parliament passed a long-awaited legislative framework tied to the dissolution of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Monday, Aug. 10, sending a bill described by lawmakers as historic through to a vote after months of hearings, even as a senior Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) official warned the law could fail without a direct role for jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Of the 562 members of parliament present for the vote, 468 backed the bill titled "Strengthening National Support and Social Unity," while 88 voted against it and six abstained. The legislation, made up of 12 articles, followed a year of continuous work by Türkiye's resolution process commission, which heard testimony from nearly 140 public figures and held numerous dedicated sessions before the bill reached the parliamentary floor.

Mustafa Karasu, a member of the KCK Executive Council, said the framework law's failure to formally recognize Öcalan's role as head of the negotiating delegation is its single greatest shortcoming. Karasu acknowledged that producing the framework law a year and a half after the initial peace call marked an important step, but insisted the process cannot advance without Öcalan directly involved.

"No step in the process will succeed without Öcalan's effective and direct participation," Karasu said, arguing that without his guidance, no PKK fighter or cadre would act independently. He added that only Öcalan is positioned to end the armed phase of the conflict and open a political one, and said the law's text should explicitly define his role as a coordinator of the peace process.

Karasu also cautioned against limiting the process to disarmament alone. He said the effort must instead serve as the starting point for a political and legal resolution to a Kurdish issue he said stretches back 100 years. He said that for the law to produce genuine results, it must be paired with steps toward Türkiye's democratization, including expanded freedom of expression and political organizing, warning that without such measures the law would remain, in his words, without effect.

Kurtulmuş calls the bill a historic step toward brotherhood

Speaking Wednesday, Aug. 12, Speaker of the Turkish Parliament Numan Kurtulmuş described the legislation as a historic step toward ending terrorism and cementing brotherhood in the country. He said the bill contains no provision that would harm Türkiye's national sovereignty, territorial integrity, or unified state structure.

Kurtulmuş said the law's first article explicitly excludes the PKK's senior leadership, stressing: "This law is not a general amnesty, but a temporary and independent law fully connected to the process of dissolving the PKK organization." He said parliament would oversee every phase of the process going forward and that a special committee would be formed for that purpose.

He said the legislation's core aim is to protect what he called "the dignity of Kurds and the pride of Turks," without encouraging any form of ethnic discrimination. Looking beyond the PKK's dissolution, Kurtulmuş said Türkiye now needs to draft a new, civil, freedom-oriented and national constitution, adding that the country's current political climate is suited to the step after years of conflict and turmoil.

The passage of the resolution law marks a significant milestone in a process that began with a peace call roughly a year and a half ago, though the diverging assessments from Ankara and the KCK underscore that substantial questions — chief among them Öcalan's formal role — remain unresolved as the process moves into its next phase.