Erdoğan ally calls PKK to disarm, says Turkey ready to embrace them
Turkish President Erdoğan ally neo-nationalist party leader Doğu Perinçek has called the PKK to disarm and said “Turkey is ready to embrace you.”
Duvar English
A staunch supporter of the ruling People's Alliance, Patriotic Party (VP) leader Doğu Perinçek on Nov. 5 called the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to disarm.
“We are calling out to Qandil, drop the US and Israeli weapons in your hand. Turkey is ready to embrace you. Don't shoot your brother. Let's not shoot each other with American guns, let's hug, let's unite,” Perinçek said during his party’s provincial congress in the southeastern province of Mardin. Qandil is a reference to the headquarters of the PKK in the northern Iraq mountains.
Known for his pro-China views, the politician's party has no seats in the Turkish parliament, but acts like he is a major coalition partner with Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which in the past was mainly focused in southeast Turkey.
Earlier, the jailed former Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has said that he wishes the PKK would fully disarm and give up its armed struggle against the Turkish state.