On Thursday, February 27, 2025, Abdullah Okaran, the imprisoned founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), issued a statement in a statement regarding the group’s members, disbanding his arms and laying them.
He made it clear that he will assume historic responsibility for this call. The orders of moving Turkish Kurdish leaders to end violent struggles towards the realisation of Kurdish political and cultural rights provided the necessary grounds to reduce Ankara’s security concerns and some of the state investment in southeastern Turkey. At least 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict between Türkiye and the PKK over the past 40 years, and it appears that this trend has continued to exhaust the aforementioned actor’s capabilities.
Okaran’s statement directly affects not only Turkish and Iraqi Kurdish people, but also Syria-based Kurdish groups and Kurdish groups on the shared border between Iran, Turkey and Iraq.
Why did Okaran decide to disband PKK?
In the midst of geostrategic rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union, Ocaran seized the opportunity to use the bipolar order international system. He thought he could gain support from Moscow, and thought that one of the NATO members could build the ground for the division of Turkey. Therefore, many Kurdish groups in the 60s, 70s and 80s decided to resort to armed struggle rather than pursuing natural rights through democratic institutions that operate in civil society and become the security subject of the central government.
Now, after considering years of armed struggle and changes in international and regional order, Okaran appears to have decided to consider the continued tensions with Ankara to be harmful to the existence of the “PKK” and to build the conditions for the survival of this group through political struggle. Of course, another group believes that in the final years of his life, he leaves behind a legacy of “peace” and is about to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize!
What impact will Ocalan’s impact on other armed Kurdish groups to disarm and collapse?
Türkiye’s PKK leader has been in prison since 1999. Accepting a kind of ceasefire between Okaran and the Turkish neo-ottoman leader, Prion’s Receptacle Tayyip Erdogan shows a big gamble. Experience shows that the Turkish president is a man of dealings, but he can never trust a long-term agreement at a historic period.
However, the statement issued by the political leader shows changes in policies governing the PKK group and changes in direction in the near future. Despite Öcalan’s high status among the middle leaders and supporters of Kurdish groups, it must not be forgotten that not all of them trust Öcalan and even prefer to choose another path out of him.
It is clearly visible to avoid splitting between the various Kurdish leaders and Öcalan, or following the opinions of imprisoned leaders.
For example, Mazurum Kobani (ABDI), commander of the Syrian Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), considered Öcalan’s message “positive,” but did not consider a statement that included the disbandment of the YPG and the laying of weapons by Syrian Kurdish groups.
SDF leaders believe that the implementation of Okaran’s statement will eliminate excuses for Turks to attack eastern Syria. The PJAK terrorist group has not issued an official statement on the issue, but Öcalan’s call would also cause a kind of division in the ranks of this separatist group.
Various countries, including Iran, Iraq and Germany, welcomed the call for the dissolution of the PKK leader.
Overall, imprisoned Okaran’s recent call for PKK disarmament came after 40 years of wasted armed struggles by armed groups and court plays of foreign forces across the region.
MNA/6394675