AhlulBayt News Agency: A spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has objected to the possibility of exiling its members from Turkey as part of a future peace deal with Ankara. He emphasized that "real peace requires integration, not exile."
Zagros Hiwa made these remarks in an interview with AFP on Monday, just a week after the PKK declared its dissolution and ended its four-decade-long armed struggle against Turkey.
He stated that if Turkey were sincere about peace, it should introduce legal amendments that would allow PKK members to be integrated into society instead of being exiled.
Hiwa argued that the PKK had demonstrated its commitment to peace, but Turkey had yet to offer any guarantees or take steps to facilitate the process. He criticized the Turkish government for continuing bombardments and artillery strikes against PKK positions.
The PKK spokesman also called for improved conditions for the group’s jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan. He urged Turkey to ease Ocalan’s solitary confinement, allowing him "free and secure work conditions so that he could lead the peace process."
On May 12, the PKK, founded in the late 1970s by Abdullah Ocalan, announced its decision to disarm and disband. The historic decision followed a call from Ocalan urging PKK members to lay down their arms and dissolve the organization to end decades of conflict.
In a message from his prison cell on Imrali Island, Ocalan urged the PKK to hold a congress and officially disband. Now 75 years old, Ocalan has been held in solitary confinement since 1999.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the PKK’s decision, describing it as "an important step toward peace and fraternity" within Turkey.
The move was also praised by top officials in Syria and Iraq, as well as by the European Union and the United Nations.
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