Ocalan Calls on PKK to Day Down Arms & Dissolve Itself

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The Imrali delegation.

The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan called on the PKK to lay down arms and disband following attempts for starting a new peace process between the PKK and Türkiye.

Ocalan said in a message which was read by Ahmet Türk, a member of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) delegation that visited the Ocalan in the Imrali prison, on Thursday, 27 February 2025: "The call made by Mr. Devlet Bahceli, along with the will expressed by Mr. President, and the positive responses from the other political parties towards the known call, has created an environment in which I am making a call for the laying down of arms, and I take on the historical responsibility of this call."

In recent months, the DEM Party has led peace negotiations between Ankara and the PKK. Earlier in February, a DEM Party delegation visited the Kurdistan Region and met with prominent Kurdish leaders in both Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. The delegation had previously met with the majority of Turkish political parties to share Ocalan's message.

Ocalan's full message read:

Call for Peace and Democratic Society 

The PKK was born in the 20th century, in the most violent epochof the history of humanity, amidst the two World wars, under the shadow of the experience of real socialism and the cold war around the World. The outright denial of Kurdish reality, restrictions on basic rights and freedoms - especially freedom of expression - played a significant role in its emergence and development. 

The PKK has been under the heavy realities of the century and the system of real socialism in terms of its adopted theory, program, strategy and tactics. In the 1990s, with the collapse of real socialism due to internal dynamics, the dissolution of the denial of Kurdish identity in the country, and improvements in freedom of expression, led to weakening of the PKK´s foundational meaningfulness and resulted in excessive repetition. 

Throughout the history of more than 1000 years, Turkish and Kurdish relations were defined in terms of mutual cooperation and alliance, and Turks and Kurds have found it essential to remain in this voluntary alliance to maintain their existence and survive against hegemonic Powers.

The last 200 years of capitalist modernity have been marked by primarily with the aim to break this alliance. The forces involved, in line with their class-based interests, have played a key role in furthering this objective. With monist interpretations of the Republic, this process has accelerated.  Today, the main task is to restructure the historical relationship, which has become extremely fragile, without excluding consideration for beliefs with the spirit of fraternity.

The need for a democratic society is inevitable. The PKK, the longest and most extensive insurgency and armed movement in the history of the Republic, found social base and support, and was primarily inspired by the fact that the channels of democratic politics were closed. 

The inevitable outcome of the extreme nationalist deviations -such as a separate nation-state, federation, administrative autonomy, or culturalist solutions- fails to answer the historical sociology of the society.  

Respect for identities, free self-expression, democratic self-organization of each segment of society based on their own socio-economic and political structures, are only possible through the existence of a democratic society and political space.

The second century of the Republic can  achieve and assurepermanentand fraternal continuity only if it is crowned with democracy. There is no alternative to democracy in the pursuit and realization of a political system. Democratic consensus is the fundamental way. 

The language of the epoch of peace and democratic society needs to be developed in accordance with this reality. 

The call made by Mr. Devlet Bahceli, along with the will expressed by Mr. President, and the positive responses from the other political parties towards the known call, has created an environment in which I am making a call for the laying down of arms, and I take on the historical responsibility of this call. 

As in the case with any modern community and party whose existence has not been abolished by force, would voluntarily do, convene your congress and make a decision; all groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself. 

I convey my greetings to all those who believe in co-existence and who look forward to my call. 

February 25, 2025
Abdullah Ocalan



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