Ocalan’s razor: Kurdish fighters struggle to make sense of their leader’s call to disarm

Earlier, PKK executive committee member Cemil Bayik said that the DEM party delegation had handed over three letters from Ocalan: one to the guerrilla command in the mountains, one to representatives of the pro-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in northeastern Syria (Rojava in Kurdish), and one to PKK members in Europe. None of the recipients were surprised by Ocalan's call. In October, after the delegation's first visit to the prison on Imrali, Ocalan said: “I have a theoretical and practical opportunity to transform the conflict from armed violence to a legal and political struggle.”

Even before the photo of the aging Kurdish leader appeared on the big screens, PKK executive committee member Duran Kalkan said the party would not lay down its arms until Ocalan was released. The PKK reiterated the demand in its announcement of a unilateral ceasefire. Needless to say, Ocalan has not been released — his isolation has not even been eased. According to the PKK, Ocalan's lawyers and family are still not allowed to visit him, and the other four inmates kept in the same prison as Ocalan share his fate. One of them, Veysi Aktas, has served his sentence but remains in prison. Some Kurds believe the authorities want to prevent Aktas from passing on Ocalan's true message.

Another, more radical condition of the PKK is the Turkish authorities' acceptance of Ocalan's political project. The PKK leader proposed the concept of “democratic confederalism,” which would oblige the Kurds to renounce their aspirations for the creation of an independent Kurdistan in exchange for autonomy and self-government inside Turkey. “This means that all municipalities should be under the control of the people, not proxies from Ankara. It has to end once and for all,” Amanos explains.

The policy of appointing “proxies” as mayors of Turkey's predominantly Kurdish cities began in 2016. Meanwhile, elected mayors have faced charges of spreading terrorist propaganda and of maintaining links to the PKK. In October 2024, after negotiations with Ocalan had begun, the mayor of Istanbul's Esenyurt district, Ahmet Özer of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), was arrested. He too was accused of being a member of the PKK.

The PKK considers ending anti-Kurdish policies to be another imperative. Turkish officials have publicly maintained contact with some Kurdish politicians and stated that their target is only terrorists, but targeted arrests of ethnic Kurds for demonstrating their national identity have continued. For example, in July 2024, people were detained in Istanbul for performing the traditional Kurdish halay dance at a wedding. The court ordered 11 of them to remain in custody on charges of propaganda for a terrorist organization, while the rest were released under judicial control.