Istanbul: Turkiye’s leading pro-Kurd party said it was expecting a “historic declaration” Thursday from the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, amid efforts to end a decades-long conflict with Ankara.
The pro-Kurdish DEM party will send a delegation Thursday to meet Ocalan at his prison on an island off Istanbul, it said in a statement.
The visit, the third in the past few months, comes as Ankara seeks to reset ties with the PKK, which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
“If everything goes smoothly, tomorrow, we expect Ocalan to make a historic declaration,” said DEM, whose visit to the jailed PKK leader was approved by the justice ministry on Wednesday.
It said there would be a statement to the press following the visit, at about 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT).
The seven-person delegation, which includes Ocalan’s lawyer, Faik Ozgur Erol, would like the PKK leader to make his expected peace appeal in a video message instead of by writing, but the justice ministry has not yet agreed, Turkish media reported.
Ocalan, 75, has been serving life without parole on Imrali prison island since his 1999 arrest in Kenya.
But starting in late December, he has been twice visited by two DEM lawmakers who then briefed the parliamentary parties on the content of their talks.
The dialogue with Ocalan is an initiative of ultra-nationalist political leader Devlet Bahceli, a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and has led to growing anticipation that Ocalan will soon issue a public call to his fighters to lay down their arms, in exchange for concessions for the country’s Kurdish minority.
PKK leaders, who are mostly based in the mountains of northern Iraq, could then relay Ocalan’s message, Turkish media said.
But the extent of Ocalan’s appeal is uncertain.
Thursday’s delegation includes DEM co-chairs Tulay Hatimogullari and Tuncer Bakirhan, and veteran Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk, 82, who has a long history of involvement in efforts to resolve the Kurdish issue.
Deputy speaker Sirri Sureyya Onder and lawmaker Pervin Buldan, who were both part of the earlier delegations, will also go, as will another DEM lawmaker.
The conflict between PKK rebels and the Turkish state, which erupted in 1984, has claimed more than 40,000 lives.
A previous round of peace talks collapsed in a storm of violence in 2015, after which the Turkish government cut off all contact.
Turkiye’s pro-Kurd party teases ‘historic’ news from PKK leader
https://arab.news/8jkfy
Turkiye’s pro-Kurd party teases ‘historic’ news from PKK leader
- Ocalan, 75, has been serving life without parole on Imrali prison island since his 1999 arrest in Kenya
Israeli strike kills 2 teenagers in Gaza
- Palestinian death toll since the start of the war in October 2023 rises to 71,654
GAZA: The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said on Saturday that Israeli fire had killed three people, including two children, in two separate incidents in the northern Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed the two teenagers in a drone strike, while the military claimed it eliminated two “terrorists” who planted an explosive device near troops.
The civil defense agency, which operates as a rescue service, said the drone killed the two near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza.
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Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital said on Saturday it received the two bodies, adding they were two boys aged 13 and 15.
The territory’s Al-Shifa Hospital said it received the two bodies, adding they were two boys aged 13 and 15.
The military said the pair had posed an “immediate threat” to its soldiers.
“Earlier today ... troops operating in the northern Gaza Strip identified several terrorists who crossed the Yellow Line, planted an explosive device in the area, and approached the troops, posing an immediate threat to them,” the military said in a statement.
Under a US-brokered ceasefire that came into effect on Oct. 10, Israeli forces have withdrawn to positions behind a so-called “Yellow Line” in Gaza, though they remain in control of more than half of the territory.
“Following the identification, the (Israeli air force) struck and eliminated the terrorists in order to remove the threat,” the military said.
A military press officer claimed that its troops had “killed two terrorists and not children,” without specifying the ages of those killed.
The civil defense said another fatality was also reported in a separate incident when an Israeli quadcopter struck a group of civilians in Jabalia, also in northern Gaza.
It did not provide details on the person killed in that incident. The press officer said the military had only one incident report.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in Israel on Saturday to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, mainly to discuss Gaza, two people briefed on the matter said.
Gaza has been reduced to rubble in the war that was triggered by an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Since the beginning of the
war, the death toll in Gaza now stands at 71,654 people, with 481 deaths since the October ceasefire, according to Health Ministry data.
The ceasefire has largely halted fighting between Israel and Hamas, but both sides have accused each other of violating its terms.
