KANDIL: A senior Kurdistan Workers’ Party commander told AFP the group will take no further steps in the peace process with Turkiye, urging it to advance negotiations and free PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan.
“All the steps the leader Apo has initiated have been implemented... there will be no further actions taken,” commander Amed Malazgirt told AFP on Saturday in a bunker in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq.
“From now on, we will be waiting for the Turkish state and they have to be the one taking steps,” he said.
The group has two demands, he added.
“First, the freedom of leader Apo... without this, the process will not succeed. The second is the constitutional and official recognition of the Kurdish people in Turkiye.”
Female senior commander Serda Mazlum Gabar told AFP that “as long as the leadership is inside, the Kurdish people cannot be free. Nor can we, as guerrillas, feel free.”
“Our path to freedom passes through the freedom of our leadership,” she added.
Ocalan, 76, has led the peace process from his cell on Imrali island, where he has been held in solitary confinement since 1999.
Turkish lawmakers from a committee tasked with fleshing out the peace process with the Kurds visited Ocalan earlier this week.
In recent months, the PKK, which maintains a rear base in the mountains of northern Iraq, has taken several historic steps toward ending its decades-old fight against Turkiye that has claimed some 50,000 lives.
In May, the PKK formally renounced its armed struggle against Turkiye. It then held a ceremony in northern Iraq during which 30 fighters burned their weapons in a symbolic move to show their commitment to the peace process.
Last month, the group said it had begun withdrawing all of its forces from Turkish soil into northern Iraq.
Earlier this month, the PKK announced their forces had withdrawn from a key border area in northern Iraq.
“We have committed to not using weapons against the Turkish state,” Malazgirt told AFP on Saturday.
Ankara began indirect talks with the PKK late last year, with Ocalan in February urging the group’s militants to lay down their weapons and embrace democratic means to advance the Kurdish cause.
Turkiye has set up the cross-party parliamentary commission to lay the groundwork for the peace process and prepare a legal framework for the political integration of the PKK and its fighters.
“By establishing this committee, the Turkish state has made a positive move, but it is not the only action needed. We are closely monitoring this mission,” Malazgirt said.
The PKK says it wants to pursue a democratic struggle to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority.
But “the guerrilla is also the prototype of free life, the prototype of free humans, the prototype of free women,” Serda Mazlum Gabar said.
“Therefore, we can continue the struggle with different methods, but the guerrilla does not end.”
PKK urges Turkiye to free Ocalan to advance peace process
https://arab.news/2tzmh
PKK urges Turkiye to free Ocalan to advance peace process
- “All the steps the leader Apo has initiated have been implemented... there will be no further actions taken,” commander Amed Malazgirt said
Syria’s growth accelerates as sanctions ease, refugees return
- Economy grows much faster than World Bank’s 1% estimate, fueling plans for currency’s relaunch
NEW YORK: Syria’s economy is growing much faster than the World Bank’s 1 percent estimate for 2025 as refugees flow back after the end of a 14-year civil war, fueling plans for the relaunch of the country’s currency and efforts to build a new Middle East financial hub, central bank Governor AbdulKader Husrieh has said.
Speaking via video link at a conference in New York, Husrieh also said he welcomed a deal with Visa to establish digital payment systems and added that the country is working with the International Monetary Fund to develop methods to accurately measure economic data to reflect the resurgence.
The Syrian central bank chief, who is helping guide the war-torn country’s reintegration into the global economy after the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime about a year ago, described the repeal of many US sanctions against Syria as “a miracle.”
The US Treasury on Nov. 10 announced a 180-day extension of the suspension of the so-called Caesar sanctions against Syria; lifting them entirely requires approval by the US Congress.
Husrieh said that based on discussions with US lawmakers, he expects the sanctions to be repealed by the end of 2025, ending “the last episode of the sanctions.”
“Once this happens, this will give comfort to our potential correspondent banks about dealing with Syria,” he said.
Husrieh also said that Syria was working to revamp regulations aimed at combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, which he said would provide further assurances to international lenders.
Syria’s central bank has recently organized workshops with banks from the US, Turkiye, Jordan and Australia to discuss due diligence in reviewing transactions, he added.
Husrieh said that Syria is preparing to launch a new currency in eight note denominations and confirmed plans to remove two zeroes from them in a bid to restore confidence in the battered pound.
“The new currency will be a signal and symbol for this financial liberation,” Husrieh said. “We are glad that we are working with Visa and Mastercard,” Husrieh said.
