Türkiye has the right to punish the PKK terrorist group if it refuses to lay down arms, according to Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and ally of the government.
“The fact that the terrorist group has not laid down arms so far, something the new Syrian administration also wants, is directly connected to the instructions and incentives of global terrorist barons,” Bahçeli told lawmakers of his party at a weekly parliamentary meeting on Tuesday.
“Türkiye has maintained its fight against terrorist groups to this day where the PKK is now fading away,” Bahçeli said.
Bahçeli informally launched the “terror-free Türkiye” initiative last year and paved the way for the formation of a delegation of lawmakers from the opposition Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) linked to the terrorist group to meet PKK jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan in prison on the island Imrali near Istanbul.
Bahçeli, staunchly opposed to any concessions to the PKK, suggested Öcalan could be granted parole if he renounced violence and disbanded the PKK. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also endorsed the initiative, calling it a “historic window of opportunity.”
DEM Party lawmakers have visited Öcalan twice since then and conveyed his message of readiness to contribute to the initiative.
“Reinforcing the Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood is a historic responsibility and is a matter of importance and emergency for all peoples,” Öcalan said in his first statements quoted by the DEM Party after the December visit.
The PKK has waged a terror campaign against Türkiye since 1984, initially to establish a so-called Kurdish state in the southeast of the country. It has spread beyond Türkiye’s borders into Iraq and Syria and has killed tens of thousands of people.
Öcalan said it was essential for all political circles in Türkiye to take the initiative without being confined to “narrow calculations,” “act constructive” and “provide a positive contribution” for this new process to succeed.
The PKK leader said the Parliament he was urged to come to would be “undoubtedly one of the most important grounds for ‘this contribution.'”
He is expected to urge the PKK to lay down arms in a statement that could be announced in the coming weeks, according to the DEM Party last week.
Bahçeli reiterated on Tuesday his “sincerest wish for the Imralı talks to unconditionally support the terror-free Türkiye initiative and for the expected call to be made as soon as possible.”
Erdoğan on Monday similarly said the terror-free Türkiye initiative was “close to realization.”
He has also vowed to “resolve the matter through operations if the PKK rejects the call.”
Türkiye has cracked down on the PKK at home for years, destroying hundreds of hideouts across eastern and southeastern provinces, where the PKK has attempted to establish a stronghold in its four-decade campaign of terror.
The terrorist group, in recent years, moved a large chunk of its operation to northern Iraq close to the Turkish border. In Syria, it operates through its U.S.-backed offshoot, the YPG.
The PKK/YPG has occupied swathes of northeastern Syria since 2015 with the help of the U.S., which calls it a “crucial” ally in the anti-Daesh campaign.
Uncertainty has loomed over the YPG’s future in Syria since anti-regime forces ousted Bashar Assad last month and the country’s new rulers promised to bring all armed groups into an official state army to prevent a resurgence of unrest and ensure sovereignty for an inclusive government.
Türkiye, which has backed the Syrian opposition and mounted a string of cross-border offensives into the country between 2016 and 2019, has repeatedly said it was time for the PKK/YPG to disband.
YPG leader Ferhat Abdi Şahin, code-named “Mazloum Kobani,” however, has indicated they had no intention of dissolving.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said this month that Syria’s new authorities “should be given an opportunity to … end the occupation and terror the YPG created,” but he did not say how long Ankara would wait for it to disarm before launching an incursion.
According to a senior U.S. diplomat speaking to Reuters, U.S. and Turkish officials have been holding “very intensive” discussions since the collapse of the Assad regime on the YPG’s future.
The two countries share a “common view of where things should end up,” including a belief that all foreign fighters should exit Syrian territory, the diplomat said, noting Turkish negotiators “have a very high sense of urgency” to settle things.