Meeting with Ocalan renews hope for Turkey-PKK peace

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – A family meeting over the weekend with the imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan raised hopes for new peace negotiations with the Turkish government.

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-deputy Meral Danis Bestas, whose party is the third largest block in the Turkish Parliament, said a new peace process could begin.

“The meeting yesterday was an important first step. We see [Ocalan] is giving the message that no one can benefit from this blind violence, as it is clear that it will only lead to more loss of human life,” Bestas told Turkish news website Gazete Duvar on Monday.

The Kurdish politician called for more meetings with the PKK leader and added that peace negotiations could begin sooner if the Turkish state were willing.

The PKK founder received a visit for the first time in over a year on the Imrali Island prison in the Turkish Sea of Marmara where he is serving a life sentence.

“We got the message that Mr. Ocalan stands behind the process that started in 2013 and lasted till 2015,” Bestas said. “We understand that he is open to negotiations.”

She added Ocalan had also met two people representing Turkish authorities without any further specification on their positions.

Turkish government forces and Kurdish fighters have been locked in a war in urban and rural areas since the collapse of the peace talks and ceasefire in August 2015.

The fighting has left a dozen Kurdish cities and towns in rubble and led to the loss of hundreds of lives from both sides, as well as those of civilians.

Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), a union of leftist Turkish and Kurdish organizations, voiced support in a statement released on its website.

Moreover, an MP of the HDP Idris Baluken objected the claims of a new peace process.

During the 2013-2015 negotiations, he played a vital role as a member of a delegation relaying messages between Ocalan and his group in the Kurdish mountains.

Additionally, Baluken called for an end to isolation Ocalan faces in prison and said peace talks could start only after “conditions for negotiations are set.”

KURDISH SIGNBOARD REINSTALLED

Meanwhile, a Kurdish language signboard removed from the Municipality of Diyadin was reinstalled on Tuesday after uproar from Kurds and the general public.

The Turkish government seized the Municipality of Diyadin, a town in the Kurdish province of Agiri.

A trustee was appointed to run the town's affairs, replacing the ousted and jailed mayor charged with terror-related accusations.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Reporting by Ari Khalidi)