Analysis-After 26 years in prison, PKK leader Ocalan has key role in Turkey peace process

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(Reuters) -After 26 years in a Turkish prison, Abdullah Ocalan is carving out a key role for himself as Ankara tries to end his outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party’s four-decade insurgency.

In an event that was unimaginable a year ago, three Turkish lawmakers visited Ocalan on Monday to further the peace process following the PKK’s announcement in May that it would disarm and disband.

In July, the PKK symbolically burned weapons and last month announced it was withdrawing fighters from Turkey as part of the disarmament process. PKK attacks have come to a halt since the process began.

But there is still some way to go to complete the peace process after a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people, and Ocalan’s abiding authority over the PKK ensures his involvement is vital.

A DELICATE BALANCING ACT

The parliament speaker’s office said that during Monday’s talks at Imrali prison in the Marmara Sea, the parliamentarians took statements from Ocalan related to the PKK’s disbandment and Syrian Kurdish forces, which Turkey regards as part of the PKK.

Achieving peace would be a major achievement for President Tayyip Erdogan – the conflict has sown deep political and cultural divisions in Turkey and set back the economy in the mainly Kurdish southeast by a generation.

Erdogan, 71, has remained largely in the background as peace moves progress with the PKK, which is deemed a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies after its attacks on both civilian and military targets.

But he welcomed the decision by the three members of a parliamentary commission to visit Ocalan, 76, saying it “paves the way for the process, contributes to it and accelerates the elimination of terrorism”.

Erdogan may be partly motivated by hopes of winning Kurdish support if he calls early elections or seeks constitutional changes to extend his rule beyond his scheduled term limit in 2028, his critics say.

But completing the peace process involves a delicate balancing act between the government, Ocalan and the active PKK leadership in northern Iraq’s Qandil mountains, as well as the forces aligned with Ocalan in northern Syria.

TRANSCRIPT OF OCALAN-PKK VIDEO CALL

A video call between Ocalan and top PKK figures in May – after he urged the PKK to disband and before a congress at which it announced it would do so – offers an insight into the balancing act and the extent of Ocalan’s influence in the PKK.

In a transcript of the video call obtained by Reuters from a source close to the process, Ocalan says that he himself decided to urge the PKK to dissolve.

“The latest call was made on my personal initiative. I saw it as a valuable opportunity. I prepared it myself,” Ocalan says in comments that appear to contradict critics’ suggestions that he acted at the state’s behest.

The transcript shows PKK figures present responded by expressing distrust of the state and questioning its willingness to push through reforms sought by Ocalan, but they acknowledge his leadership and voice trust in him.

“I value this loyalty. I don’t need support, but I value it. I’m not exaggerating, but I keep you alive,” says Ocalan, who shows no emotion about the PKK being dissolved.

“I wasn’t sad. I wasn’t emotional and won’t be. I founded it myself and I’m ending it myself,” he says in the transcript, which adds that the video call was joined by an official from Turkey, underscoring state oversight of the process.

A PKK source in Iraq said that the transcript was authentic.

Erdogan’s office, the parliamentary speaker’s office and the Turkish intelligence agency did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on the transcript and on other issues raised in this article.

‘DETERMINATION AND WILLPOWER’

Since taking up arms against Turkey in 1984, the PKK’s goal has shifted from seeking an independent Kurdish state to demanding limited autonomy and greater Kurdish rights. It has been on the back foot since NATO-member Turkey expanded military bases in northern Iraq and launched heavy attacks on the PKK.

Ocalan remains in prison after being found guilty of treason and separatism by a Turkish court in 1999.

His importance to the peace process has been underlined by his lawyers recently receiving permission to visit him in prison for the first time since 2019.

One of the lawyers, Ibrahim Bilmez, told Reuters Ocalan’s jail conditions had improved and officials had become more respectful. He can interact with other PKK-linked inmates, read books and watch some television channels, but has no internet access, Bilmez said.

“His determination, his willpower remains unchanged. Nothing has diminished. He continues to strive for a democratic resolution of the Kurdish issue,” the lawyer said.

Also underlining Ocalan’s importance to the peace process, Devlet Bahceli – leader of the ultranationalist MHP party, an Erdogan ally and long a fierce critic of Ocalan – has depicted the PKK leader as essential to the president’s stated goal of achieving a “terror-free Turkey”.

“I wouldn’t hesitate to go to Imrali by my own means … and meet (Ocalan) face to face around a table,” Bahceli told MHP lawmakers in parliament last week.

DOUBTS ABOUT STEPS TOWARD PEACE

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party, parliament’s third largest, has met Ocalan several times during the process and one of its lawmakers was among those who visited Ocalan on Monday.

Even so, many DEM supporters are sceptical about Erdogan’s willingness to push through reforms sought by Ocalan to boost the Kurds’ status in Turkey.

Sources have told Reuters that Ankara is preparing a law to let thousands of PKK fighters and civilians return home from hideouts in northern Iraq under talks on ending the conflict.

Ocalan underlined the importance of such moves in the May video call.

“Many comrades will return to Turkey. The law must resolve this,” the transcript quotes him as saying. “Democratic politics and the legal groundwork must be prepared.”

Many of Turkey’s Kurds are also sceptical about the peace process because of a legal crackdown under Erdogan on the pro-Kurdish political movement. Thousands have been arrested and dozens of parliamentarians and mayors have been unseated and jailed, including former party leader Selahattin Demirtas.

The crackdown has been halted during the peace process, and Bahceli has said Demirtas’ release could be beneficial.

(Editing by Timothy Heritage)