Gov’t ally MHP leader Bahçeli expects PKK to dissolve after meeting between Öcalan and DEM Party

Duvar English

Far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on Dec. 22 once again reiterated his expectation for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to dissolve. 

Speaking during a party event, President Erdoğan’s ally Bahçeli commented on the expected meeting between jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, which will reportedly take place this week.

“As a result of the negotiations with İmralı (Island), the end of terrorism and the dissolution of the terrorist organization should be announced within the framework of the ideal of a common future and love for humanity and nation,” Bahçeli said.

“Syria must be cleansed of terrorism. There should be absolutely no place for PKK/YPG in Syria. Kurds are our brothers (and sisters). The terrorist organization is our enemy. DEM Party should take decisive steps towards becoming the party of Turkey without being a tool of CHP's politics of exploitation. Peace, tranquility, and fraternity will win. Turkey and Syria will win and the chaos plans of imperialism will lose,” he added.

The PKK, designated a “terrorist” group by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 with the initial aim of creating an independent Kurdish state. It subsequently moderated its goals to seek greater Kurdish rights and limited autonomy in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.

Turkey regards the YPG as an extension of the PKK.

Bahçeli also commented on Israel and its operations in Syria, and said, “No one should forget that Tel Aviv, which covets Damascus, will also receive an Ottoman slap in Jerusalem. If Damascus is safe, Jerusalem will also be safe when the day comes.”

In early October, government figures, including MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, started making seeming reconciliation efforts regarding the Kurdish issue.

In one of the surprising moves, Bahçeli, who previously called for the closure of the DEM Party on several occasions, invited Öcalan to announce the dissolution of the PKK at the Parliament.

Öcalan was arrested in 1999 and is serving a life sentence in a prison on İmralı Island alongside other five PKK convicts.