PKK founding member orders dissolution of organisation

Numerous news agencies have published a video showing members of the government in Istanbul reading a letter written by Abdullah Öcalan, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The 75-year-old leader has been serving a life sentence in a prison south of Istanbul since 1999. The PKK has long been considered a terrorist organisation in Turkey, as well as in the UK and US, and has been responsible for numerous attacks since it was founded in 1978. In the letter, the leader ordered all PKK-affiliated groups to lay down their arms and disband. The message was greeted with praise in the conference room where Öcalan’s allies gathered to broadcast his call. However, government officials responded with a more cautious tone, with the deputy leader of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party saying they would wait to see the results of the initiative. Different factions within the PKK have also responded to Ocalan’s call, with some expressing public scepticism. The head of the Syrian branch of the PKK said that disarmament must be followed by permission for the group to work politically. A PKK commander made a statement to a TV channel with which the group has close links. He said that most of the group would accept the order if Öcalan asked them to disarm and then secured their release from prison. But Ocalan’s message is expected to have far-reaching implications across the Middle East, not least in Syria, where Kurdish forces control significant territory, but also in Iran and Iraq.