How Diplomacy Helped In Disbanding Armed Turkish Group PKK

The PKK's historic announcement Monday about ending its armed struggle is the result of months of shuttle diplomacy to end the decades-old Kurdish conflict that has cost tens of thousands of lives. 

After a 10-year hiatus in which all contacts with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were frozen, things began shifting in October with a surprise offer from a hardline nationalist ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

In an October 22 speech to parliament, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli mooted the idea of an early release for jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan if he rejected violence and disbanded the PKK. 

The next day, the 75-year-old former militant received his first prison visit in 43 months, receiving his nephew Omer on Imrali prison island near Istanbul. 

Ocalan sent back a message saying he alone could shift the Kurdish question "from an arena of conflict and violence to one of law and politics", later offering assurances he was "ready to... make the call".

- 'Window of opportunity' -

On October 30, Erdogan threw his support behind Bahceli's initiative, in an address to "my dear Kurdish brothers" in which he spoke of a "historic window of opportunity."

In the following months, a small delegation from the pro-Kurdish opposition DEM, the third party in parliament, received permission to visit Ocalan four times, ending his political isolation.

In January, the delegation also visited one of the party's jailed former leaders, Selahattin Demirtas, a charismatic figure in the Kurdish movement, who also backed the fresh bid to find a political solution.

Then on February 16, the delegation travelled to Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region to brief the Kurdish leadership there. 

On February 27, the PKK founder released a letter calling on his militants to lay down their weapons and disband, his message read out by the delegation at a press conference in Istanbul.

"I am making a call for the laying down of arms, and I take on the historical responsibility of this call," he wrote. The appeal was formally accepted by the PKK two days later, which declared "an immediate ceasefire". 

- Ocalan via videolink -

The last round of talks had collapsed in a flurry of violence in 2015. 

Erdogan warned there would be harsh consequences "if the promises are not kept" or the militants delayed disarming. 

In the ensuing months, PKK condemned the ongoing Turkish military operations against its positions, with Cemil Bayik, one of its leaders saying the violence made holding a party congress impossible. 

The PKK finally held its congress on May 5-7 in the Kandil mountains in northern Iraq, during which they were even able to have contact with Ocalan via videoconference, according to the pro-Kurdish news agency ANF.

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