ANKARA: All Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria, including US-allied Syrian Kurdish forces, must lay down their weapons after the peace call from the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Turkiye’s ruling AK Party said on Friday.
Thursday’s call from PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan for the group to disarm and disband could potentially lead to ending a 40-year conflict and have far-reaching political and security consequences for the region.
The PKK has not yet reacted to the call, but the Syrian Kurdish YPG, the spearhead of a key US ally against Daesh in Syria that Ankara views as an extension of the PKK, has said Ocalan’s message did not apply to them.
Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, AK Party spokesman Omer Celik said the call would advance the government’s ambitions of a “terror-free Turkiye” if heeded, but added that there would be no negotiating or bargaining with the PKK.
“Regardless of what name it uses, the terrorist organization must lay down its weapons and disarm itself, along with all its elements and extensions in Iraq and Syria,” Celik said.
The PKK launched its insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984 and is now based in the mountains of northern Iraq. It is designated a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States and European Union. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Ankara has repeatedly called on the YPG to disarm since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad last year, warning that it would face military action otherwise.
Ocalan’s call, prompted by a surprise proposal
last October from an ultra-nationalist ally of the Turkish president, has been
welcomed by the United States, European Union, and other Western allies, as well as Turkiye’s neighbors Iraq and Iran.
Kurdish militants in Iraq, Syria must lay down weapons, Erdogan’s party says
https://arab.news/87evb
Kurdish militants in Iraq, Syria must lay down weapons, Erdogan’s party says
- The Syrian Kurdish YPG has said Ocalan’s message did not apply to them
- AK Party spokesman Omer Celik said the call would advance the government’s ambitions of a “terror-free Turkiye” if heeded
Syrian authorities arrest leader of terrorist cells in Lattakia
- Ali Aziz Sbeira is accused of violating civilians’ rights during the Syrian uprising after 2011
LONDON: Syrian authorities have arrested Ali Aziz Sbeira, a prominent leader of terrorist cells responsible for attacks on internal security checkpoints, the Syrian army and civilians during the country’s uprising against the former regime of Bashar Assad.
The Internal Security Directorate announced on Wednesday the capture of Sbeira in Lattakia province, located on the Mediterranean Sea.
Authorities accuse him of leading and supplying arms to terrorist groups. Hailing from the town of Jableh, Sbeira is also accused of having links to Ghiyath Dalla and Brigadier General Nours Makhlouf, two military figures associated with the former rule of Assad.
Sbeira is accused of violating civilians’ rights during the Syrian uprising after 2011, when he joined the National Defense Militia and helped suppress peaceful demonstrations, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
In 2014, he joined the 4th Armoured Division, which was commanded by Maher Assad, brother of the former president, from 2018 until the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024.
