ANKARA: Abdullah Ocalan, jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, appeared in a rare online video on Wednesday to declare the group’s armed struggle against Turkey over and call for a full transition to democratic politics.
In the recording, dated June and released by the PKK-affiliated Firat News Agency, Ocalan called on Turkey’s parliament to set up a commission to oversee disarmament and manage a broader peace process.
“The phase of armed struggle has ended. This is not a loss, but a historic gain,” he said.
“The armed struggle stage must now be voluntarily replaced by a phase of democratic politics and law.”
The PKK, locked in a bloody insurgency for more than four decades and designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies, decided in May to disband after an initial written appeal from Ocalan in February.
Later on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party - the third biggest party in parliament which played a key role in facilitating the PKK’s disarmament decision - said a group of militants would begin handing over their weapons in the northern Iraqi city of Suleymaniyah on Friday.
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