ANKARA (Reuters) – All Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria, including U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish forces, must lay down their weapons after the peace call from the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Turkey’s ruling AK Party said on Friday.
Thursday’s call from PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan for the group to disarm and disband could potentially lead to ending a 40-year conflict and have far-reaching political and security consequences for the region.
The PKK has not yet reacted to the call, but the Syrian Kurdish YPG, the spearhead of a key U.S. ally against Islamic State in Syria that Ankara views as an extension of the PKK, has said Ocalan’s message did not apply to them.
Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, AK Party spokesman Omer Celik said the call would advance the government’s ambitions of a “terror-free Turkey” if heeded, but added that there would be no negotiating or bargaining with the PKK.
“Regardless of what name it uses, the terrorist organisation must lay down its weapons and disarm itself, along with all its elements and extensions in Iraq and Syria,” Celik said.
The PKK launched its insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984 and is now based in the mountains of northern Iraq. It is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and European Union. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Ankara has repeatedly called on the YPG to disarm since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last year, warning that it would face military action otherwise.
Ocalan’s call, prompted by a surprise proposal last October from an ultra-nationalist ally of the Turkish president, has been welcomed by the United States, European Union, and other Western allies, as well as Turkey’s neighbours Iraq and Iran.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Daren Butler and Gareth Jones)
