Founder and long-time leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK in Turkey Abdullah Öcalan has made a rare statement from prison and says he is ready to participate in the rapprochement of relations between Turkey and the Kurds, reports news agency AFP.
On Friday, the delegation of the DEM party, which promotes the cause of the Kurds, received permission to visit Öcalan.
– Reaffirming the brotherhood of Turkey and the Kurds is not only historically responsible, but an urgent necessity for both peoples, Öcalan says in a press release published by the DEM party on Sunday.
Turkey and its Western allies have classified the PKK as a terrorist group. Öcalan was captured in 1999 and sentenced to death for terrorism and treason.
The death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. Since then, Öcalan has been on the prison island of İmralı in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul.
Two months ago, the leader of the nationalist MHP party, Devlet Bahceli, unexpectedly offered Öcalan the opportunity to come to the Turkish parliament to renounce terrorism and disband the group he led. The initiative received support from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Based on the press release published about the prison visit, Öcalan would take up the offer.
– I have the ability and determination to participate in a positive spirit in the initiative planned by Bachel and Erdoğan, says Öcalan, according to the DEM party.
AFP