Ocalan has been held in near-total isolation on the prison island of Imrali since 1999, with only rare communication with the outside world.
Anyone has some further insights on this? Seems a bit odd to do this right now.
Probably this?
The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) has revealed that Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), is expected to make a public appeal outlining a legal and democratic solution to the Kurdish cause in Syria.
Edit: Meaning, to end the fight
Yes, but why now? I don’t think Erdogan has started a reconciliation effort or something like that.
I believe Erdogan is very calculative
but I don’t see him want to even pretend for any sort of reconciliation with Kurdish people.Maybe Erdogan is doing this move to get in a more favorable position with the US? In the sense that PKK is considered a terrorist group, so by “solving” this issue now, it sort of resets the US-Turkey relations with Trump.Also, to my knowledge, Ocalan is very respected in Kurdish populations, so one announcement of the kind could be influential for Western Asia. More specifically where Kurds are, Syria, Iraq, Iran, not only Turkey.
Not sure, just speculating.
Edit: the strikethrough, cause it looks like there was a shift of internal policy a few months back from Turkey that I didn’t know about.
but why now?
Some coverage here that attempts to answer that question: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-iran-escalation-prompts-turkey-launch-talks-pkk
TL;DR: Regional instability has Ankara spooked, and they don’t want to have to worry about the PKK seizing any openings if things escalate. The Turkish government’s bargaining position is quite good right now, so they want to take the opportunity before that changes.
Hmm, thanks for the link. Yes it might be an attempt by Erdogan to pacify the Kurds to make it easier to turn Syria into a client state.
On the one hand it is probably a good thing if the Syrian Kurds get a seat in the new Syrian administration, but on the other hand Erdogan is a back stabbing bastard that will likely turn on them as soon as the opportunity arises.
