Road map for peace to be released at Nevruz: Report

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

This photo taken from Pukmedia shows the BDP’s co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, alongside Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk.

Daily Milliyet claimed today that the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, has said he will declare a “road map for peace” on March 21, expressing confidence in the ongoing talks to solve the Kurdish issue in a peaceful way. 

The report was published as a Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) group arrived in Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq today, in order to deliver a letter from Abdullah Öcalan that is addressed to Kandil, the military headquarters of the PKK. Pukmedya published photos of the group in Sulaymaniyah. 

Milliyet claimed to base its coverage on “official prison records” of talks between Öcalan and the Feb. 23 mission.

“If the process fails, ‘Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] died,’ you will say. I will not be there, I will not let the BDP and the PKK use me,” Öcalan said, according to the report.

“But everyone should know that we will neither live nor fight as we used to. I have trust in myself. You should know well that neither I nor the state will take a step back. [We will achieve] a historic peace and transition to democratic life,” he reportedly said.

“The PKK’s withdrawal from Turkey will be after a Parliament ruling and the Turkish Grand Assembly will approve it. A truth commission will also be established. [Kurdish people who were exiled from their villages] will return to their villages. If these conditions are not met, the [PKK’s] withdrawal will not become a reality,” Milliyet quoted Öcalan as saying.

‘We will be free’

Öcalan also described the political environment he expects after the “establishment of peace.”

“Neither house arrest nor amnesty, there will be no need for those. We will all be free. If I can be successful, neither the KCK [outlawed Kurdistan Communities Union – the PKK’s so-called urban wing] members nor the others will be arrested ... A civil war will begin with 50,000 people. But everybody has to acknowledge that we will not live as we used to, and we will not fight as we used to,” he said.

Öcalan also made comments about “a team” that had convinced Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “to end the PKK” through forceful methods. 

“That team said ‘we will end the PKK.’ They arrested tens of thousands of people [in the KCK operations]. This power planned a coup against the MİT [the Turkish Intelligence Agency]. I intervened and said ‘it is a coup.’ The prime minister realized that it was his turn next after a coup was staged against the MİT. He was going to be arrested for treason,” he said.

Öcalan also reportedly lent his support to the presidential system, saying he would "support Erdoğan being president” on the condition of a system similar to that used in the United States.

‘War could occur’

Öcalan began the talks by saying it was a historic meeting and that he had been holding talks since the period of former Turkish President Turgut Özal.

“Turks must acknowledge this. If [the peace process] fails, a middle-to-high-profile war will occur, and chaos and rebels will appear; I have been in contact [with authorities] since Özal and this was interrupted; now it must not be so,” he said.

Öcalan offered three phases and 10 principles in the meeting and told the deputies to “argue on them.”

 “You will argue on it, frankly. You will take it to Kandil [Mountain, where the PKK base is located] and to Europe. If it comes back in two weeks I will revise my views. It would be better for me to meet with [the BDP’s] co-chairs. If [the government’s] attitude toward the chairs continues, again this committee will gather. I want to declare this at Nevruz. I, myself will declare it,” Öcalan said.

March 21, the date of Nevruz, is a spring festival for many people in the Middle East and one of crucial importance to Kurds.

Öcalan also claimed that the U.S. state of Florida was a hub for Turkish counter-guerrillas who sabotaged anything related to a solution on the Kurdish issue.

‘Morsi a British invention’

The PKK leader also asked the visiting deputies to work to prevent the pollution of Islam. “The British used Islam and knocked down the Ottomans. [Egyptian President Mohamed] Morsi is their new invention. They used to produce generals, today they are producing imams,” he reportedly said. 

Öcalan was quoted as saying that he himself used to practice Islam and that Kurds were living their own Islam secretly.

Blame the Israeli lobby, Armenians, Greeks

Meanwhile, he also claimed that the Armenian lobby was bidding to become effective as of 2015, the 100th anniversary of the events of 1915, according to Milliyet.

“Kurds are trying to a secure a place for themselves. They were expelled from the state during the last century. Even [Ottoman sultan] Abdülhamid had given them room before. [Modern Turkish founder] Mustafa Kemal also did. However, the Israeli lobby, the Armenians and the Greeks [living in Turkey] interfere and think they will be successful if the Kurds are alienated,” he reportedly said.